{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_54131/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_54131","id":"gutenberg_54131","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54131","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - American","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Reports & Conference Proceedings","Category: Teaching & Education","Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals","Home missions -- Periodicals","The American Missionary"],"text":"VOL. XXXIII.                                           No. 12.\n\n\n                                THE\n\n                       AMERICAN MISSIONARY.\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n               \u201cTo the Poor the Gospel is Preached.\u201d\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n                          DECEMBER, 1879.\n\n\n\n\n                            _CONTENTS_:\n\n\n  THE ANNUAL MEETING.\n\n    PARAGRAPHS                                               353\n    THE FINANCIAL OUTLOOK                                    354\n    PROCEEDINGS                                              355\n    GENERAL SURVEY                                           356\n    REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE                              368\n\n\n  THE FREEDMEN.\n\n    REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATIONAL WORK              368\n    REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON CHURCH WORK                       370\n    PROVIDENTIAL CALLS: Rev. M. E. Strieby, D. D.            372\n    THE NEGRO IN AMERICA: Prest. R. H. Merrell, D. D.        378\n    CHURCH WORK IN THE SOUTH: Rev. C. L. Woodworth           384\n\n\n  AFRICA.\n\n    REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE                                  388\n    THE MENDI COUNTRY: Rev. G. D. Pike                       390\n\n\n  THE INDIANS.\n\n    REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE                                  394\n    THE INDIAN QUESTION: Rev. H. A. Stimson                  395\n\n\n  THE CHINESE.\n\n    REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE                                  401\n    AMERICA AND CHINA: Rev. J. H. Twichell                   402\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n                             NEW YORK:\n\n         Published by the American Missionary Association,\n\n                      ROOMS, 56 READE STREET.\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n                Price, 50 Cents a Year, in advance.\n\nEntered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., as second-class matter.\n\n\n\n\n                 American Missionary Association,\n\n                      56 READE STREET, N. Y.\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n  PRESIDENT.\n\n    HON. E. S. TOBEY, Boston.\n\n\n  VICE-PRESIDENTS.\n\n    Hon. F. D. PARISH, Ohio.\n    Hon. E. D. HOLTON, Wis.\n    Hon. WILLIAM CLAFLIN, Mass.\n    ANDREW LESTER, Esq., N. Y.\n    Rev. STEPHEN THURSTON, D. D., Me.\n    Rev. SAMUEL HARRIS, D. D., Ct.\n    WM. C. CHAPIN, Esq., R. I.\n    Rev. W. T. EUSTIS, D. D., Mass.\n    Hon. A. C. BARSTOW, R. I.\n    Rev. THATCHER THAYER, D. D., R. I.\n    Rev. RAY PALMER, D. D., N. J.\n    Rev. EDWARD BEECHER, D. D., N. Y.\n    Rev. J. M. STURTEVANT, D. D., Ill.\n    Rev. W. W. PATTON, D. D., D. C.\n    Hon. SEYMOUR STRAIGHT, La.\n    HORACE HALLOCK, Esq., Mich.\n    Rev. CYRUS W. WALLACE, D. D., N. H.\n    Rev. EDWARD HAWES, D. D., Ct.\n    DOUGLAS PUTNAM, Esq., Ohio.\n    Hon. THADDEUS FAIRBANKS, Vt.\n    SAMUEL D. PORTER, Esq., N. Y.\n    Rev. M. M. G. DANA, D. D., Minn.\n    Rev. H. W. BEECHER, N. Y.\n    Gen. O. O. HOWARD, Oregon.\n    Rev. G. F. MAGOUN, D. D., Iowa.\n    Col. C. G. HAMMOND, Ill.\n    EDWARD SPAULDING, M. D., N. H.\n    DAVID RIPLEY, Esq., N. J.\n    Rev. WM. M. BARBOUR, D. D., Ct.\n    Rev. W. L. GAGE, D. D., Ct.\n    A. S. HATCH, Esq., N. Y.\n    Rev. J. H. FAIRCHILD, D. D., Ohio.\n    Rev. H. A. STIMSON, Minn.\n    Rev. J. W. STRONG, D. D., Minn.\n    Rev. A. L. STONE, D. D., California.\n    Rev. G. H. ATKINSON, D. D., Oregon.\n    Rev. J. E. RANKIN, D. D., D. C.\n    Rev. A. L. CHAPIN, D. D., Wis.\n    S. D. SMITH, Esq., Mass.\n    PETER SMITH, Esq., Mass.\n    Dea. JOHN C. WHITIN, Mass.\n    Hon. J. B. GRINNELL, Iowa.\n    Rev. WM. T. CARR, Ct.\n    Rev. HORACE WINSLOW, Ct.\n    Sir PETER COATS, Scotland.\n    Rev. HENRY ALLON, D. D., London, Eng.\n    WM. E. WHITING, Esq., N. Y.\n    J. M. PINKERTON, Esq., Mass.\n    E. A. GRAVES, Esq., N. J.\n    Rev. F. A. NOBLE, D. D., Ill.\n    DANIEL HAND, Esq., Ct.\n    A. L. WILLISTON, Esq., Mass.\n    Rev. A. F. BEARD, D. D., N. Y.\n    FREDERICK BILLINGS, Esq., Vt.\n    JOSEPH CARPENTER, Esq., R. I.\n    Rev. E. P. GOODWIN, D. D., Ill.\n    Rev. C. L. GOODELL, D. D., Mo.\n    J. W. SCOVILLE, Esq., Ill.\n    E. W. BLATCHFORD, Esq., Ill.\n    C. D. TALCOTT, Esq., Ct.\n    Rev. JOHN K. MCLEAN, D. D., Cal.\n    Rev. RICHARD CORDLEY, D. D., Kansas.\n\n\n  CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.\n\n  REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D., _56 Reade Street, N. Y._\n\n\n  DISTRICT SECRETARIES.\n\n    REV. C. L. WOODWORTH, _Boston_.\n    REV. G. D. PIKE, _New York_.\n    REV. JAS. POWELL, _Chicago_.\n\n    H. W. HUBBARD, ESQ., _Treasurer, N. Y._\n    REV. M. E. STRIEBY, _Recording Secretary_.\n\n\n  EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.\n\n    ALONZO S. BALL,\n    A. S. BARNES,\n    GEO. M. BOYNTON,\n    WM. B. BROWN,\n    C. T. CHRISTENSEN,\n    CLINTON B. FISK,\n    ADDISON P. FOSTER,\n    S. B. HALLIDAY,\n    SAMUEL HOLMES,\n    CHARLES A. HULL,\n    EDGAR KETCHUM,\n    CHAS. L. MEAD,\n    WM. T. PRATT,\n    J. A. SHOUDY,\n    JOHN H. WASHBURN,\n    G. B. WILCOX.\n\n\nCOMMUNICATIONS\n\nrelating to the work of the Association may be addressed to\nthe Corresponding Secretary; those relating to the collecting\nfields to the District Secretaries; letters for the Editor of the\n\u201cAmerican Missionary,\u201d to Rev. Geo. M. Boynton, at the New York\nOffice.\n\nDONATIONS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS\n\nmay be sent to H. W. Hubbard, Treasurer, 56 Reade Street, New\nYork, or when more convenient, to either of the Branch Offices,\n21 Congregational House, Boston, Mass., or 112 West Washington\nStreet, Chicago, Ill. A payment of thirty dollars at one time\nconstitutes a Life Member.\n\n\n\n\n                                THE\n\n                       AMERICAN MISSIONARY.\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n               VOL. XXXIII. DECEMBER, 1879. No. 12.\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nAmerican Missionary Association.\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is a real source of regret to us that all our news from the\nfield must be omitted for this month. Next month we shall be\nflooded with good tidings, we hope, from all quarters.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFriends sending us remittances will please address H. W. Hubbard,\nEsq., Treasurer, he having been promoted from the Assistant and\nActing Treasurership on the retirement of Edgar Ketchum, Esq. Mr.\nKetchum still remains on the Executive Committee.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBy a mistake at the Chicago newspaper offices, the name of\nMr. Samuel Holmes was omitted from the list of our Executive\nCommittee as printed by them, and that of Mr. Andrew Lester\nretained. The facts are just the other way. Mr. Lester having\nresigned, was made a Vice-President, and Mr. Holmes is still a\nmember of the Committee.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe MISSIONARY is this month devoted to the reproduction of the\nAnnual Meeting. We wish all our readers could have been there to\nlearn of our work, our situation and our prospects, and to gain\nthose enlarged views of the duty and the opportunity which lie\nbefore us in all directions. This grouping of proceedings and\npapers is the best substitute we can offer.\n\nWe print the annual survey of the Executive Committee nearly in\nfull, rather than in abstract, as heretofore, as giving that\ngeneral view of the work, without which it cannot be appreciated\nin its extent and variety. Instead of covering several pages with\nthe formal minutes of the Annual Meeting, we condense them into a\nshorter compass, as giving equal information in a more readable\nform. The Annual Report, when published in full, will, of course,\ncontain these as well as the reports of the Committees in detail.\nWe have maintained our general division of the field, prefixing\nthe reports of the several committees to the papers and addresses\non the cognate subjects, by this classification making the whole\nmore valuable for reference and use. We thus propose to send the\nannual meeting to those who could not go to it, regretting still\nthat the enthusiasms and impressions of a great assembly cannot\nbe transmitted by types and ink.\n\nWe regret the necessity which has compelled us to abridge\nsomewhat almost all the reports and papers following, but the\nlimits of a double number are easily reached with so much\nmaterial at hand. We have omitted entirely the valuable paper by\nGeneral Leake, on \u201cProtection of Law for the Indians,\u201d because\nit has been printed in full in both the _Inter-Ocean_ and the\n_Advance_, and because it is so long and yet so compact that it\ncannot be condensed. It is well worth most careful study.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe are under obligations to our denominational newspapers for\ntheir full and faithful reports of our meeting. The _Advance_, in\nits regular edition and in an extra, gave full copies of the most\nimportant documents and papers read, for which we have secured\na wide circulation; while the _Congregationalist_, through its\neditorial correspondent, devoted a large part of its first page\nto the report of the meeting, printed the larger part of the\nannual report on its third page, and in its leading editorial\nspoke good words of commendation for the Association, and of\nexhortation to its friends.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE FINANCIAL OUTLOOK.\n\nOur work has, in the successful termination of the year, reached\nan important crisis. We should be sorry to have any one think,\nbecause the debt and the expenses of the year have been met,\nthat we are, therefore, about to retire from business and rest\nfrom our labors. On the other hand, we are just ready to go\nto work. It has taken a good share of our strength to carry\nthis back-load; and we have been crippled at the front by the\ninsufficiency of the buildings for our largest institutions. We\nhave been walking as men walk on the ice, holding back lest we\nshould venture too far and make some bad slip.\n\nBut that is all, we trust, of the past. God has been good to us.\nWe have prayed for deliverance and we have worked to be free, and\nprayers and alms have come up together before God, and prayer is\nalways effectual when accompanied with such proofs of sincerity.\nNow we are free to work. Our feet are on the solid rock of\nsolvency. The Lord has established our goings. The way is open\nbefore us and the work lies ready to our hand. Our schools in\nthe South of all grades are opening this year fuller than ever.\nSeveral churches are waiting to be recognized and put upon the\npilgrim foundation. The completion of the new building in Austin,\nTexas, and of the four we hope soon to build at other points,\nwill give increased and much needed accommodations. Those who met\nat Chicago urged us to enlarge the missionary schools among the\nChinese on the Pacific Coast; and the new departure in attempting\nthe education of Indian youths at our negro schools offers us\nopportunities of more permanent influence in that direction than\nwe can hope for in any other way, while the tribes are subject\nto be moved at will from one reservation to another. The African\nMissions, new and old, are both calling upon us for attention and\nexpense.\n\nWhat is the financial outlook for all this? Shall we be able to\nmeet these various calls with anything like adequate efficiency?\nWe answer, with a look of inquiry, Friends, it depends on you.\nBut our expression of inquiry turns to one of confidence as we\nremember what you have done. We expect to do this larger work;\nfor evidently God calls us to it, and His friends have never\nfailed us yet.\n\nWe are encouraged, too, by the beginnings of the year. Our\nreceipts for the month of October and the beginning of November\nare larger than a year ago. But, do not forget, they need to be\nso all through the year. We will be as wise and saving in the\nexpenditure as we can; but we can be far more wisely economical\non an income which is reasonably adequate to the needs of the\nwork, than on a very scanty one. \u201cThe destruction of the poor is\ntheir poverty,\u201d says the wise man. Keep us in mind then and in\nheart, we pray you, that we may all realize that God has brought\nus out into this liberty that we may serve Him and our generation\nbetter.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPROCEEDINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING.\n\nThe meeting place was the spacious First Congregational Church\nof Chicago. At 3 p. m. of Tuesday, October 28th, President Tobey\nassumed the chair, and Dr. W. H. Bidwell, of New York, conducted\nthe opening devotional services. Rev. J. G. Merrill, of Iowa, and\nRev. George C. Adams, of Illinois, were elected Secretaries.\n\nThe Annual Report was read by Rev. George M. Boynton, and the\nTreasurer\u2019s Report by H. W. Hubbard, Esq. In grateful response to\ntheir cheering character the congregation rising sang, \u201cPraise\nGod, from whom all blessings flow.\u201d The hour following was\nobserved as a concert of prayer with the pastors and teachers in\nthe Southern field.\n\nIn the evening Dr. R. S. Storrs, of New York, preached a grand\ndiscourse from Psalm cxviii. 23, \u201cThis is the Lord\u2019s doing; it is\nmarvelous in our eyes.\u201d President Strong, of Minnesota, and Dr.\nRobbins, of Iowa, conducted the other services.\n\nDuring the evening the following greeting was received by\ntelegram and read by Secretary Strieby: \u201cThe Prudential Committee\nand the Executive Officers of the A. B. C. F. M. congratulate the\nA. M. A. upon the successful termination of their year\u2019s labor,\nand bid them God-speed in their work for the coming year.\u201d\n\n                                      ALPHEUS HARDY, _Chairman_.\n\nOn the next morning the following response was adopted by a\nrising vote: \u201cThe A. M. A., assembled at its thirty-third\nanniversary, receive with grateful appreciation the congratulations\nof the Prudential Committee and Executive Officers of the\nvenerable American Board, and with thanks to God for the recent\nenlargement granted to the Board, pray for the continued\nDivine blessing on its glorious and expanding work.\u201d\n\n                                     M. E. STRIEBY, _Secretary_.\n\nDr. Goodwin, of Chicago, then led in an earnest prayer for the\nblessing of God upon the two societies and their common work.\n\nTuesday evening Secretary Strieby read a paper entitled\n\u201cProvidential Calls,\u201d and President Merrell, of Wisconsin, on \u201cThe\nProvidential Significance of the Negro in the United States.\u201d These\nwill be found in this MISSIONARY. Field Superintendent Roy gave\n\u201cA Field View of the Work.\u201d Rev. J. H. Twichell, of Connecticut,\nread a paper on \u201cThe Relations of America and China,\u201d of which\nwe reprint a portion. In the afternoon a paper on \u201cThe Necessity\nof the Protection of Law for the Indians\u201d was read by Gen. J.\nB. Leake, of Illinois. These papers were referred each to the\ncommittee having charge of the cognate subject.\n\nThe Finance Committee reported through Mr. J. W. Scoville,\napproving the management of the Association and calling upon the\nchurches to increase their contributions to its treasury, so that\nnow freed from debt it might do a greater and a better work. The\nreport was followed by remarks from Hon. E. S. Hastings, Geo.\nBushnell, D. D., and Hon. E. D. Holton, of Wisconsin.\n\nRev. Henry A. Stimson reported for the Committee on Indian\nMissions, and followed the report with an able address, giving\na sketch of the causes of the various Indian wars. An animated\ndiscussion followed.\n\nRev. C. H. Richards read the report of the Committee on Church\nWork, and was followed by District Secretary Woodworth and others.\n\nThe Committee on Educational Work reported through its chairman,\nPrest. A. L. Chapin, of Wis., followed by Professors Willcox and\nChase, and Rev. Messrs. Bray, Boynton and Foster.\n\nRev. A. H. Ross, of Mich., reported for the Committee on Chinese\nMissions, following the report with a brief address, and followed\nby Rev. Mark Williams, of China, Jee Gam and others.\n\nDr. Dana, of Minn., reported on African Missions for the\nCommittee. He also, District Secretary Pike, and Dr. E. P.\nGoodwin, made addresses.\n\nFor these reports in full or in part we refer to the following\npages; and for the officers elected for the coming year, to the\ninside of the first cover.\n\nThe morning prayer meetings were led by Rev. James Brand, of\nOhio, and M. M. G. Dana, D. D., of Minn. The Lord\u2019s Supper was\nadministered on Thursday afternoon by F. Bascom, D. D., of Ill.,\nand Rev. Thomas Jones, of Mich. At this service a contribution\nwas taken, amounting to $437.46, for the Trinity School at\nAthens, Ala., for which a special plea had been made in the\nmorning.\n\nPresident Fairchild and Col. C. G. Hammond presided at the\nmorning and afternoon sessions of Thursday respectively.\n\nA most interesting meeting was held on Wednesday evening, when,\nafter prayer by Dr. Geo. N. Boardman, of Illinois, addresses\nwere made by Jee Gam, a converted Chinaman, and now one of our\nteachers in Oakland, Cal.; by Big Elk, a converted Indian, from\nthe Omaha Reservation, who was accompanied by Rev. Mr. Dorsey,\nwho acted as his interpreter, and by Rev. James Saunders, a negro\nminister. These three told the story of their own religious\nexperiences and life. Prest. Alexander, of La., and Dr. Roy, of\nGa., followed, and pointed the illustration of this one humanity\nand one Gospel.\n\nThursday evening the closing session was held, at which Mr. M.\nH. Crogman, a graduate of Atlanta, and now Professor in the\nMethodist school at Nashville, Tenn., made an address which, by\nthe vigor of its thought and the eloquence of its expression,\nwas a sufficient illustration of the capacities of his race.\nPresident Tobey and F. A. Noble, D. D., also addressed the\nmeeting. Resolutions of thanks to the First Church and its\npastor, the people and press of Chicago, and the railroads which\nhad given especial facilities, were passed. A few last words from\nDr. Goodwin, and the benediction from Dr. Savage, of Chicago, and\nthe Association adjourned for another year.\n\nIt would not be right to omit the notice of the Ladies\u2019 Meeting\nheld in the church parlors on Wednesday afternoon. Mrs. E. W.\nBlatchford presided, and the large assembly was addressed by Mrs.\nProf. Spence, of Fisk University, and Misses Parmelee and Milton,\nteachers at Memphis, Tenn.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nGENERAL SURVEY.\n\nFrom the Annual Report of the Executive Committee.\n\n\nThe report opens with brief obituary notices of Rev. Simeon S.\nJocelyn, a Secretary of the Society for many years and more\nlately a member of the Committee; and of Rev. William Patton, D.\nD., and Rev. George Thacher, D. D., Vice-Presidents; of Miss\nLaura S. Cary and Mrs. Anna M. Peebles, valued teachers, and Miss\nRebecca Tyler Bacon, associated with Hampton in its early days,\nwho have also died during the year. These may be found in full in\nthe forthcoming Annual Report volume.\n\n\nTHE FREEDMEN.\n\nThe varying fortunes of the Freedmen through the year have added\nanother illustration to the many which combine to show that an\nuneducated mass of men is always an uncertain quantity in the\nnational problem. That these once slaves in the South have been\nwronged and abused there can be no doubt. Advantage has been\ntaken of their ignorance in contracts for labor, and in the\nmanner of their pay. They have been misled and intimidated in the\nattempt to exercise their right of franchise. It would be useless\nto deny the facts. The thousands who have left their homes and\nassociations in Mississippi and Louisiana for the chances of new\nsettlement in Kansas, are witnesses as powerful in their silence\nas in their speech. They have not gone for nothing.\n\nWe have no apology to offer for those who have made it impossible\nfor them to remain in peace, and who have sought by force to keep\nthem from departing. But, on the other hand, it becomes us to\nremember that these evils spring not so much from local as from\ngeneral causes. The same wrongs are perpetrated and endured,\nto some extent, wherever there are similar states of society.\nIgnorance is always at a disadvantage, whether it wants to work\nor to vote. It is always in bonds to some power and will beyond\nits own. New York, and perhaps even Chicago, knows something\nof abused labor and a controlled vote. The local causes which\nincrease the evil may need thorough treatment, but that is not\nours either to prescribe or to administer. It is the general\ncause which we may consider, and to which we are directing all\nour energies\u2014not to the restraint or punishment of those who do\nthe wrong, but to the removal of the ignorance which gives such\nlarge occasion for the wrong.\n\nFor our work is foundational and steady. Amid all social and\npolitical changes the need for it remains unchanged. We are not\nengaged in pulling up the shallow roots of weeds, nor in planting\nflower-beds with annuals, but in sub-soiling our Southern fields,\nand so preparing the ground for crops of better quality from\nyear to year. The only permanent guarantee against the abuse of\nany race or class, either North or South, is the diffusion of\nChristian intelligence among the abused, and of the spirit of\nChristian love among those who abuse them. This is our work.\n\nWe have no word of criticism for those who have chosen to remove\nto another State. Liberty of emigration is one of the most\nunquestionable rights of freemen. But there is no charm in the\nname of Kansas which will make the ignorant or the timid either\nwise or brave. Let the masses of the colored race be once armed\nwith intelligence, and they can stay or go with equal impunity.\nWithout it they will be anywhere at the mercy of either force or\nfraud.\n\nNor is the work of the Association to be limited by any local\nchanges among the Freedmen. The removal of seven thousand men,\nwomen and children from so vast a population leaves no noticeable\nvoid; nor, even if the proportions of this exodus shall reach\nthe highest numbers at which it has been estimated, will it\nperceptibly diminish the millions of a race which is year by year\nincreasing in numbers and in thrift.\n\nThe only plea which these facts make to us is, that we redouble\nour efforts to forge for them the armor which alone can be their\ncomplete defence.\n\nThe Association has not, therefore, felt itself called upon to\ndivert its efforts to the field thus newly occupied. If, as the\noutcome of this movement, there shall be permanent and large\nsettlements of the colored people in new localities, it may\nbecome needful for us carefully to consider the claim which they\nmay make on us for such service as we are trying to render their\nbrethren in the South.\n\nWe have cheerfully forwarded such gifts of money and clothing\nas have been entrusted to us to local agencies, in which we had\nreason to have the greatest confidence, for the relief of the\npresent distress, and have kept ourselves to our main work.\n\n\nEDUCATIONAL WORK.\n\nOur _eight chartered institutions_, in the eight leading States\nof the South, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama,\nMississippi, Louisiana and Texas, have continued to do thorough\nand faithful work. One has been added to the number of our normal\nschools, making twelve in all. Twenty-four common schools have\nbeen aided\u2014six more than the previous year. The total number of\nschools of all grades has been 44.\n\nWe have had in all 190 teachers in the field; of these 10 have\nalso fulfilled the duties of matrons, 6 have been connected with\nthe business department, and 11 have been pastors of churches,\nbut all have been actively engaged in teaching.\n\nThe total number of pupils has been 7,207\u2014almost exactly the\nnumber reported a year ago. These have been distributed as\nfollows: Primary, 2,739; Intermediate, 1,495; Grammar, 633;\nNormal, 2,022; Collegiate Preparatory, 169; Collegiate, 63; Law,\n28; Theological, 86. This shows an increase in the professional\nschools, a decrease in the collegiate, and over 500 more in the\nnormal department than last year.\n\nThe reports of the _quality of the work_ thus accomplished have\nbeen most encouraging. Greater regularity of attendance has\nbeen attained than ever before, and the ambition to keep up\nwith the classes entered has been marked. The same persistence\nin overcoming obstacles to entrance arising from poverty and\ndistance from the schools which marked previous years, has been\nno less conspicuous during that just passed. The range of study\nand instruction has been much the same as heretofore. The work\nof the class-rooms has been too good to need to be materially\naltered.\n\nThe _industrial and practical training_ has been that in which\nthere has been the most marked improvement and expansion. How to\nwork is quite as important a branch of knowledge for the colored\nboys and girls as how to teach. Indeed, that they maybe able\nto teach others how to work is a large part of their vocation.\nHow to behave themselves on the farm, in the shop, in the\nwork-room, sick-room and the kitchen, is as needful for them to\nknow as how to behave themselves in the school-room and in the\nchurch of God. This training is receiving more and more wise and\nthorough attention, and we are sending out young men and young\nwomen better and better fitted to be the teachers and leaders of\nsociety, as well as of the school.\n\nOur schools and teachers have been evidently _growing in favor\nand esteem_, both with the colored and white people of the South.\nA most noticeable instance of the attachment of the colored\npopulation to the schools, and their appreciation of their value,\nwas given very recently at Athens, Alabama. It became necessary\nto give up the school at that place, or to rebuild at an expense\nof not less than $5,000, which latter it was deemed impossible\nto do. Word to that effect was sent to Athens. The grief of the\npeople was intense. It did not, however, expend itself in tears,\nbut became motive power. They offered themselves to erect the\nneedful building, pledged over $2,000 at once, and by gifts of\nlabor and material provided fully for it, and are at work upon it\nnow. They propose to make brick sufficient for its completion,\nand a surplus to exchange for the lumber which will be required.\nThey are all at it. A blind man, who can do nothing else, offered\nto turn the crank to draw the water. Whether they will be able,\nin their extreme poverty, to accomplish all they have undertaken,\nyet remains to be seen; but such zeal in a good thing is surely\nworthy of special notice. When the colored people attempt to\nco-operate with us to such an extent, we cannot desert them. The\nschool will go on.\n\nDuring this year it appeared to the Committee that a sufficient\nfund had been accumulated to warrant at least a beginning of the\npermanent building for the Tillotson Normal Institute, in Austin,\nTexas. The foundation is already laid, and the contract drawn for\nthe enclosure of the building. This great State, with its rapidly\nincreasing population of colored people, and its insufficient\nprovision for their education, demands the earliest possible\ncompletion of this building, and the equipment of the institution\nfor efficient work.\n\nWith the four _buildings_ completed the previous year at Mobile,\nNew Orleans, Macon and Savannah, we are now in possession of\nbetter and more permanent equipment for our school work than\never before. But it is yet quite insufficient for its pressing\nneed, which is most felt in the necessity of enlarged provision\nfor boarding pupils, for it is, after all, in those who are\nthus brought under the continuous influence of their teachers,\nand away from the debasing surroundings of cabin life, that the\nbest results of mental and religious training are realized. The\ncall for such relief has been continuous and increasing in its\nurgency; but we have been obliged almost to deny it a hearing in\nthe poverty and pressure of these past years.\n\nThe near future will, however, we trust, do much to relieve this\nlong-felt want, through the generous gift to the Association of\n$150,000 by Mrs. Daniel P. Stone, of Malden, Mass., from the\nestate of her late husband, of which, though it is not yet in\nour possession, we have been fully assured. In accordance with\nthe expressed wish of the donor, this money is to be used in\nthe erection of buildings at Nashville, Atlanta, New Orleans\nand Talladega. These buildings will largely increase the\naccommodations of these institutions for the class of pupils\nwhich has been named, and will greatly diminish the percentage of\nexpense for their education, as but few additions to the corps of\nteachers already in the work will be required. In these normal\nand collegiate institutions it is the variety of studies rather\nthan the number of students to which the teaching force must be\nadapted. We may add fifty per cent. to the number of pupils,\nand need to add only five per cent., perhaps, to the number of\nteachers. There can be no more acceptable gift than that of these\nnew buildings for well-established schools\u2014none which will so\nadd to their effectiveness.\n\nA few school _buildings_ belonging to the Association have been,\nof late years, _rented to local school boards_, in cases where\ngreater good could be accomplished for those for whose use they\nwere intended than by retaining them in our hands. It has been\na saving to our treasury, a widening of their usefulness, and a\nbond of fraternity between the friends of education North and\nSouth.\n\nWe may only, in passing, refer to the beginning in the\naccumulation of valuable _libraries_ made in some of our\ninstitutions. There is yet room for much needed enlargement of\nthis important branch of our educational service.\n\nTwo things yet remain to be done that our schools may be\nplaced upon a permanent and satisfactory basis, and these are\nadequate provision for the maintenance of professorships and\nof scholarships. We have been compelled to confine ourselves\nchiefly to making appropriations for the salaries of teachers,\nsimply because without them there could be no schools at all.\nThis was the one thing indispensable from the very start. But,\nincreasingly, the need of _student aid_ makes itself manifest.\nGifts have been secured from churches, Sunday-schools and\nindividuals for this purpose, and more money must be raised from\nsimilar sources. Yet it is evident that this must not be taken\nfrom the fund by which the teachers are sustained. That would be\nto increase the number of applicants, and, at the same time, to\nclose the doors at which they seek admission. We must not try\nto lengthen the skirts of our coats by cutting them off at the\nshoulders; they will fall off from us altogether if we do that.\nThis is our problem: both to maintain our teachers and to support\nmore students. It cannot be solved by any process of subtraction.\nCan it be done in any other way than by addition to our income?\nAnd it must be done, if we are to make our work tell as it ought\nupon the vast negro population of the South. To overcome the\nobstacles which stand at every step in the way of attaining the\nthorough education needed by those who are to be the leaders\nof their people, demands a power of will and an energy of\nperseverance such as few individuals of any race possess, unless\nthey are assisted all along the way.\n\nThe origin and surroundings of these colored students must\nbe continually borne in mind. They have nothing to help them\nin the homes from which they came; nothing to help them in\nthe prevailing sentiment of the white people toward them; the\nfewest possible openings for such remunerative labor as is\nready for white students in similar conditions, and checks on\ntheir ambition of every sort. Nor is it strange that they lack\nthat stamina which generations of culture and self-restraint\nimpart. Their help, both moral and material, must come from us,\nand those who, like us, believe that they can be and should be\nthoroughly trained before they are sent forth to lay foundations\nfor the upbuilding of their race. Student aid must be freely\nand systematically given, or our higher schools will accomplish\ntheir beneficent design at great disadvantage, and only to a very\nlimited extent.\n\nBut the glory of our schools and colleges is more than in all\nelse in their _religious character and influence_\u2014that they\nare Christian schools and missionary colleges. Indeed, they are\nso completely at one with the church work that it is difficult\nto draw a line between the two departments, and to tell where\nthe one ends and the other begins. A few particulars may best\nillustrate the influence of faithful Christian instruction and\nexample. Of 52 graduates of Atlanta, 50 at graduation were\nprofessing Christians, and none have fallen away. Later we hear,\n\u201cAll the members of the classes to be graduated now profess to\nbe Christians.\u201d A revival is reported during the year, and not\nless than 30 conversions. Fisk reports several additions to the\nCollege church at every communion, and as many more of those\nconverted there to other churches. At Talladega we hear of \u201ca\nprecious work of grace; 37 were received into the church. All\nbut two of the girls, and all but four of the 45 young men, who\nare boarding scholars, are professing Christians.\u201d The pastor at\nHampton writes: \u201cNowhere can teachers be found more earnestly\nevangelical, laboring often beyond their strength to bring souls\nto Christ. 11 of the Indian students were, in March, received\ninto the College church.\u201d At Berea, the graduates of this year\nare all professing Christians. These are examples of the good\naccomplished and reported. In several of the lower schools, also,\nwe hear of many being brought to Christ.\n\nNor are these Christian students idle in the Master\u2019s vineyard.\nThey go out to _their school work_ in vacation time, and have\nlearned as they go to preach. The help which was given, the\nprevious year, to lengthen the short terms of a few common\nschools, thus furnishing employment for our _student teachers_,\nwas thought to be fruitful of good results by our best and most\nexperienced instructors. It has been deemed wise to somewhat\nenlarge the work in that direction.\n\n108 teachers from Fisk, in 1877, taught 9,332 pupils. Over 10,000\npupils, during the year 1878, are estimated to have been taught\nby those educated at Atlanta. On this basis, we feel justified\nin estimating that at least 150,000 pupils have been reached\nby our present and former students during the year. They also\ngo out to do Sunday-school and missionary work on the Lord\u2019s\nday. Talladega reached 1,200 Sunday-school scholars through its\nstudents during the last year, and in all the years some 20,000.\nA high educational official testifies that the students of\nTougaloo \u201calmost invariably start Sunday-schools as soon as they\nopen their day-schools.\u201d So the seed is sown not by the way-side,\nnor on the rock, nor among the thorns, but where it \u201calso beareth\nfruit and bringeth forth, some an hundred-fold, some sixty, some\nthirty.\u201d\n\nA few words, by way of bridging over to our church work, as to\nour _Theological Departments_. They are four\u2014at Nashville,\nTalladega and New Orleans, which are ours altogether, and at\nWashington, where we continue to share the support of the\nTheological Department of Howard University with the Presbytery\nof that city. There are 86 students in these schools, of which\nnumber nearly one-half are at Howard University. They are sending\nout ministers, well trained both intellectually and spiritually,\ninto our churches and those of other denominations.\n\nTHE CHURCH WORK.\n\nThe present _number of churches_ in connection with the\nAssociation is sixty-seven. These are supplied with pastors,\nsome of them white ministers of experience and culture, who,\nfor health\u2019s sake, are glad to be in the South; others, young\nand earnest men, who prefer to devote themselves to work among\nthe lowly; others still are colored men, who have been educated\nin our own or similar institutions, and who are doing good work\namong their own people. Some of these are also principals or\nteachers in the schools, thus doing double duty.\n\nThe number of church members is 4,600, of whom 745 have been\nadded during the year. This work has been under the supervision\nof Dr. Roy. It has been a time for making acquaintance with\nthe men and the field, but his first visits have been full of\nservice in quickening and counselling those on the ground, and in\ncorrespondence with the administrative force at home.\n\nThree _new churches_ have been established during the year\u2014at\nShelby Iron Works, Ala., at Cypress Slash, Ga., and at Flatonia,\nTexas.\n\nAfter a careful survey of the material and opportunity, we are\nneither prepared to rush in and organize new churches wherever\nit may be possible, nor to abandon the field as unfitted to our\npolity. We could probably buy up a hundred churches within a\nyear at $100 apiece, and then should be worse off than when we\nbegan, loaded down with useless burdens. There is nothing in the\nnature of the South or in the character of the negro by which\nthe people of that region or that race are unfitted to be good\nCongregationalists. It only demands intelligence and the power\nof self-control. Where these have been developed by Christian\neducation there is readiness and preparation enough. Hitherto\nour churches have flourished under the shadow of our schools\nand of their graduates. But as the sun goes toward the west\nthe shadow broadens, and the field for churches of our order\nis enlarged. There are some half dozen localities now waiting\nand ready to organize Congregational churches, to which our\nField Superintendent will give early attention and assistance.\nDiscriminating and timely help at such points will accomplish far\nmore in the end than rapid and ill-considered assistance. Too\nmany churches, both North and South, die early, because born too\nsoon. We design and purpose to extend this work as fast, and only\nas fast, as we may do it with the hope of permanent results.\n\nA goodly number of these churches report _religious interest_\nduring the year, and, indeed, some of them are engaged in seasons\nof special effort and ingathering at this time; for in the\nSouth\u2014strange as it may seem to us\u2014the summer gives an interval\nfrom farm work which is often and successfully devoted to special\nChristian effort. A letter just received informs us of such a\nseries of meetings in one of our churches in North Carolina,\nwith a congregation of 200, who bring their lunch and stay from\nmorning till afternoon, and often till the evening service too.\n\nThe impression made by these churches upon ministers who went\namong them for the first time last winter was very noticeable,\nand their testimony agrees as to the decorum, as well as fervor,\nof their colored congregations. Nor are they without the witness\nto their progress, which is indicated by efforts looking toward\ntheir _self-support_ and a participation in the general work of\nmissions. These all have _Sunday-schools_ connected with them,\nin which are gathered 6,219 scholars, besides which some of our\nteachers are engaged in Sunday-schools connected with other\nChristian churches. The cause of _temperance_ receives constant\nattention in both schools and churches. Juvenile and adult\norganizations are found in nearly all of them, and the young men\nand women go out pledged, not only to abstain themselves, but to\nmake it part of their mission to persuade others to follow their\nexample in this respect.\n\nTo the six _Conferences_ into which our churches were organized\none has been added during the past year\u2014that of North Carolina.\nThe Georgia Conference takes the place of that of South-eastern\nGeorgia. The Congregationalism of the South is thus fully\nassociated. The meetings of these bodies are full of interest.\nTheir discussions are practical and admirably sustained. Their\nfellowship is cordial and Christian, and their spiritual power is\nin some cases remarkable. The South-western Conference, this year\nheld at New Iberia, La., was signalized by the quickening and\nreviving of the churches represented, and by the conversion of\nfifty souls.\n\n_Councils_ are called for ordination of pastors from time to\ntime, and in all customary ways the churches mutually advise and\nhelp each other.\n\nWe should be greatly remiss did we not call attention also to the\nwork done in the homes of the colored people by _devout women\nwho have given themselves to this missionary work_. The need\nof such work can easily be imagined, but cannot be appreciated\nfully without a knowledge of the facts. At Memphis, Tenn.,\nAtlanta, Ga., Miller\u2019s Station, Ga., Charleston, S. C., etc.,\nfaithful visitations have been made from house to house, and\nBible-reading, cottage prayer-meetings, practical instruction,\nand occasional temporal relief, have been administered by lady\nmissionaries, while many of our lady teachers have cheerfully\nengaged in similar work, so far as their engagements would allow.\nNo general organization of Northern women has been attempted in\nthis behalf, but of their own motion circles have been formed at\nDetroit, Mich., Waukegan, Ill., Oberlin, Ohio, and other points,\nwhose object it has been to provide the expenses for these\nmessengers of mercy. The work, though limited in its extent, has\nbeen fruitful of good results.\n\nBefore leaving this hurried review of the Southern field, we are\nhappy to say that our corps of workers, as a whole, has never\nbeen more admirably efficient than now. There are fewer changes\nin the force from year to year than formerly, and those who have\njust gone for the first time into these schools and churches are\nmen and women of superior intelligence and character. We look for\ngrand work and great results, through God\u2019s blessing on their\nlabors in the coming year.\n\n\nAFRICA.\n\nAbout the beginning of the current year, the Rev. Floyd Snelson,\nwho was at the head of the _Mendi Mission_, was obliged to\nreturn to this country on account of the health of his wife.\nWe greatly deplored his loss, as we trusted much to his wisdom\nand experience for a wise administration of our work in that\nfar land. To Rev. A. P. Miller were committed the position and\nresponsibilities thus vacated. He, with Rev. A. E. Jackson,\nand their wives, Dr. James and Mr. White, constituted then our\nmissionary band.\n\nOn the 13th of February, Elmore L. Anthony was sent, _via_\nLiberia, to join them. His various experiences as a slave, a\nsoldier and a student, had fitted him to take special charge of\nthe industrial work at Avery, though we believed him to be as\nmuch a missionary in spirit as those who had preceded him. He was\nsubmitted to a severe medical examination, and pronounced sound\nin health; for we have concluded that those only of unimpaired\nhealth should be exposed to the debilitating influences of a\ntropical climate. He has so far fulfilled all our expectations.\n\nWe have just sent another missionary to the field. Nathaniel\nNurse, a native of Barbadoes, who has resided already in Liberia\nfive years, and who has been maintained at Fisk University for\nthe last two years by English and Scotch friends, sailed on the\nfourth of this month. He has shown much enterprise in the past,\nwhich we hope will be effectively applied to the missionary work\non the West Coast.\n\nOur force consists then, at present, of these six men and the\nwives of two. The men have endured the climate wonderfully well,\nhaving suffered only temporary disabilities, and having been laid\naside but little from their work. Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Jackson\nhave not been as well, perhaps, because they were not in as firm\nhealth before leaving this country, but have not been compelled,\nas yet, to leave the Mendi coast, even temporarily.\n\nLast year we had but a single _church_ to report, of 44 members,\nat Good Hope Station. Since that time a church has been organized\nalso at Avery. These two churches now include a membership of 85,\nand have 190 Sunday-school scholars in connection with them.\n\nThe _school_ at Good Hope Station has been in a condition\nof growing prosperity, and has enrolled during the year 245\nscholars, with an average attendance, as collated from the\nmonthly returns, of 156. At Avery the school has been small, the\nchildren being frequently diverted by their parents to work of\nvarious kinds. About a dozen children have been taken into the\nMission Home to be educated under permanent Christian influences.\nA school has also been sustained at Debia, and a preaching\nservice.\n\nThe _industrial work_ has been carried on with energy, the mill\nand property have been put in better order, some 16 laborers have\nbeen employed in the saw-mill, the coffee plantation is beginning\nto be productive, and we trust that this arm of the service will\nprove increasingly a means of education to the natives and a help\nin the support of the mission.\n\nOur missionaries have not been content with merely maintaining\nthe work as they found it, but have been exploring the interior\nto study opportunities for its enlargement. They found the people\npeaceable and friendly, and open to their approach not only, but\ninviting their permanent settlement. It is their plan to use\nnative Christians for preaching at _out-stations_ as far as they\nmay be able.\n\nOur missionaries have had to labor under the disadvantage of a\nvery limited experience in organizing and carrying on either\nchurch or school work. They all went directly from the college to\nthe foreign field. They have made fewer mistakes of judgment than\nmight have been anticipated. We regard this experiment of African\nmissionaries to Africa as practically solved. Their endurance of\nthe climate and their general success in the work are evident.\nMore and more clear to us, from year to year, is the connection\nbetween our work on the American and the African continents.\n\nAnd now, while our original mission field is again becoming\nfruitful under these new conditions, the question is brought to\nus in a way we cannot refuse to consider. Shall we, in addition\nto this, undertake a new field upon the other side of the \u201cDark\nContinent\u201d? The generous _offer made by Robert Arthington_, of\nLeeds, England, of \u00a33,000, to this Association, to aid in the\nestablishment of a mission between the Nile and the Jub, and from\nthe 10th parallel of north latitude down almost to the equator,\ncompelled us, early in the year, to examine the field and the\npossibility of undertaking it. A large committee, through books\nand travellers, made as thorough investigation as was in their\npower, and were supported by the Executive Committee, as a whole,\nin regarding the proposed location as offering advantages in\naccessibility over almost any of the new fields recently opened\nin equatorial Africa; but they delayed any distinct acceptance\nof the proffer until this fund should be swelled from other\nsources to not less than $50,000. In this state of abeyance the\nwhole matter remained until a very recent date. Dr. O. H. White,\nthe Secretary of the Freedmen\u2019s Missions Aid Society in Great\nBritain, has been sanguine as to the willingness of the English\nand Scotch brethren to further aid us in the establishment of\nthe proposed mission. He has already received contributions to\na considerable amount for this object, and at the last regular\nmeeting of our Committee, after careful discussion, the following\nresolution was unanimously passed:\n\n\u201cVoted, that on condition of the receipt of \u00a33,000 from Mr.\nRobert Arthington, of Leeds, as offered to us by him, for the\nestablishment of a new mission in Eastern Africa, and of a like\namount from the British public, raised through the efforts of Dr.\nO. H. White, the Association pledges itself to devote thereto the\nsum of $20,000, and with the blessing of God and the assistance\nof the friends of Africa in Great Britain and America, to\nundertake permanently to sustain that mission.\u201d\n\nThe Committee were encouraged to take this step by the fact\nthat the debt of the Association was no more an obstacle, that\nseveral thousand dollars were already in hand from the Avery\nestate, bequeathed for this very purpose, and by other, as they\nthought, evident leadings of Providence in this direction. And\nnow if these conditions be met, and this new work at no distant\nday be fairly entered on, the Mendi Mission on the West, and the\nArthington Mission on the East, will support one another in their\nplea to Christian England and America for generous and prayerful\nsustentation. Our foreign work will thus be more complete than it\ncan be with but a single mission, and we shall be able to present\na wide field for the generous devotion and self-consecration of\nthe sons of Africa now in this land.\n\nThis new field is among the real heathens, unclad, and with\ntheir native barbarism made worse by all the atrocities of a\nslave-hunting ground. That evil is, providentially, fast passing\naway. During the past year Col. C. G. Gordon has overcome the\nmightiest of the slave traders, and his large and desperate\nforce. When the influence of the Arab invaders is withdrawn,\nwith their unnatural stimulation of tribal wars and the ready\nmarket they afford for human beings, other of the native kings,\nunder the influence of even a few Christian men, will follow the\nexample of Mtesa, who has lately forbidden the sale of slaves in\nhis dominions under pain of death. So the Lord has set before us\nan open door, and no man can shut it. Shall we not go in and set\nup our banners in the name of Immanuel?\n\n\nTHE INDIANS.\n\nThe Indians still remain under the care of the Department of the\nInterior. We believe that the Administration earnestly desires\nthe promotion of their true interests, but the grievous wrongs\nunder which they have so long suffered still continue to be\nvisited upon them, and will so long as an impossible policy\nis attempted to be carried out by an insufficient force. The\nquestion as to the legal status of the Indian is now before the\ncourts. Until his rights there, and to hold property by a secure\ntenure, are established, he will be exposed to provocations which\nwe cannot expect him to bear in silence.\n\nTo us was assigned, several years ago, the nomination of six\n_Indian Agents_, who were to report to us as well as to the\nUnited States Government. We trust that this work has been to the\nadvantage of these tribes, as our agents have, with perhaps a\nsingle exception, maintained good character and reputation amid\nall the temptations of that trying life. And yet our relations\nto the Department are not what we could wish them to be. In four\nof the six agencies where we make nominations, changes have\nbeen made necessary during the past year. In two of them agents\nhave been appointed by the Department without our nomination or\napproval, so that we have no longer any responsibility for the\nagencies at Red Lake, Minn., or Green Bay, Wis., nor have we,\nunder these circumstances, the same motive as at first to secure\ngood men for these places, when they may be so easily removed, or\nour nominations thrown aside for others backed by another kind of\ninfluence.\n\n_Our missionary at S\u2019Kokomish_, Rev. Myron Eells, is still\npatiently pursuing his good work. He is pastor of the church of\n23 members, and has three other preaching stations. In these four\nthe attendance upon public worship is nearly 200; 110 children\nare in the Sunday-schools; 128 families are under his pastoral\ncare. Mr. Eells has travelled among the neighboring people, and\ndiffused his influence over a wide area.\n\nA new element in work for the Indians has been the _educational\nwork at Hampton_. 77 Indian boys and 9 Indian girls have spent\nthe year at the Institute, contented and studious, and responding\nto patient and skillful teaching with marked and steady progress.\nDuring the summer a number of them gained great credit to\nthemselves by their good conduct on the farms and in the families\nof Massachusetts among which they were distributed. It is hoped\nthat the number of girls allowed to enjoy these privileges may be\nconsiderably increased. Captain Pratt has obtained permission to\ndo a similar work at Carlisle, Pa.\n\nThe great feature of the advantage in this training is the\ncontinuous influence under which these students are held. It is\nindispensable to the best work as Christian educators of those\nwho are not helped by their home life. Our experience is the same\namong the Freedmen, the native Africans and the Indians.\n\nIt may be, in the providence of God, in this direction, that the\nIndian work of the Association is to be pursued and enlarged in\nthe future. The Committee recommend, for the present at least,\nco-operation with General Armstrong in the work he has so well\nbegun in this direction. The result of his experience, thus far,\nis his decided conviction that \u201cthere is no better way to elevate\nthe Indians than in negro industrial schools.\u201d An effort in this\ndirection promises greater results, for the same expenditure of\nmoney, than the attempt to found new missions among the Indians.\n\n\nTHE CHINESE IN AMERICA.\n\nThe condition and numbers of the Chinese on the Pacific coast,\nafter all the various agitations of mob, and State, and National\nCongress, have not been materially altered. The sand lots have\nstill echoed with the blasphemies of Kearney and his followers,\nand even some of the churches, with scarcely less vigorous\nproclamations, that the Chinese must go. California has adopted\na new Constitution, though the question whether its Chinese\nprovisions are constitutional is yet unanswered. It discourages\nimmigration, imposes conditions on resident Chinamen, forbids\ntheir employment by any corporation, and requires cities to\nremove them beyond their bounds or locate them within prescribed\nlimits; and, finally, both houses of Congress, yielding to\npolitical pressure, in the presence of the resident Minister of\nthe Chinese Government, ignored its solemn treaty, and declared\nthat no ship should bring to this shore more than fifteen Chinese\nimmigrants at any one time. We have to thank the President of the\nUnited States for the veto which alone prevented this action from\nbecoming law.\n\nAnd yet the Chinaman is, on the Pacific coast, in numbers not\nincreasing, but not materially diminishing. He does not come,\nbecause he can do better elsewhere. He does not go, because he\nhas not yet attained the object of his coming. Meanwhile, several\nChinamen have, during the year, been naturalized in other States,\nand the force has thus been broken of the decision that, being\nneither white nor black, he cannot be allowed to vote.\n\n_Our work_ has not diminished in our twelve schools under the\nsuperintendency of the Rev. Wm. C. Pond. Only three less pupils\n(1,489) have been enrolled than the year before. 252 has been\nthe average attendance all the year through; 21 teachers are now\nin the service, including 5 Chinese helpers; 84 gave evidence of\nconversion during the year, while 137 have renounced idolatry.\nMr. Pond says: \u201cThe total number of whom we have cherished the\nhope that they were born of God, from the beginning of our\nwork until now, cannot be less than 235. The Congregational\nAssociation of Christian Chinese has now 198 members, of whom 44\nwere received the past year.\u201d\n\nWe believe that this work, with that of our Presbyterian and\nMethodist brethren on the Pacific coast, is both acceptable to\nGod and approved of men.\n\n\nFINANCES.\n\nWe come now to the statement of our financial history and\ncondition. With profound gratitude to Him to whom the silver and\nthe gold belong, and with renewed confidence in those to whose\nstewardship he has entrusted it, we make this record: (1.) The\nexpenses of the year have been fully met; (2.) The debt of the\nAssociation is entirely extinguished; (3.) On the 1st of October\nthe balance in our treasury amounted to $1,475.90.\n\nIt is sixteen years since the Association has been reported free\nfrom debt. The expansion of its work, which the changes effected\nby the war imperatively demanded, involved us in these unpaid\nobligations, which increased upon us almost yearly until, in\n1875, our debt was over $96,000. Then came the turning point. It\nwas diminished by a little over $3,000 during 1876; in 1877 it\nwas reduced by about $31,000, to $62,800. Last year $25,000 more\nof it was liquidated, leaving, at the beginning of this year,\n$37,389.79. And now we are able to say that that whole amount is\npaid. $28,808.67 have been sent us for that express purpose. The\nbalance has come from our general receipts from the living and\nthe dead. And this has been paid in cash. We began to fear that\nour constant plea in this behalf was injuring the support of our\nregular work, and last year we set apart, to cover it, a residue\nof western lands of sufficient value; but the debt is absolutely\ngone now and not balanced against anything, and that property is\nfree to be converted to other uses.\n\nThe total income of the year has been $215,431.17\u2014nearly $20,000\nmore than that of the preceding year. $15,000 of this increase\nis, however, from bequests which have amounted to $50,034.16.\n\nFor the ability to make these cheering statements we thank God,\nand in the remembrance of His past goodness we take courage. It\nlooked an almost impossible thing that that great debt of nearly\n$100,000 should have disappeared, and that in these \u201chard times.\u201d\nBut the way to know the goodness of God is to try some hard thing\nin His name. To Him be the praise.\n\nWe would not leave the false impression, however, on the minds of\nany, that these years of retrenchment have been easy years for\nus, or that the past twelve months have been free from causes for\nanxiety. Twice during the year we have been $10,000 behind last\nyear\u2019s receipts or this year\u2019s needs. We were greatly perplexed\nin our unwillingness to increase the old debt or to incur a new\none, when, in one case, a large gift, and in the other a large\nlegacy, lifted us over the shallows and enabled us to set sail\nagain rejoicing.\n\n\nCONCLUSION.\n\nAnd now what is the significance of our present condition? We are\nout of debt. We have the promise of a far better equipment for\nour work in the way of buildings. The Mendi Mission is fairly\nmanned, and, we trust, on the way to a new and wide usefulness.\nThe Freedmen call for all the aid we can supply. All motives of\nlove for self, for country and for God conspire to urge us to\nincrease our efforts for their Christian education. Africa is\nstretching out its right hand now, as well as the left, which we\nhave been trying so long to fill, and Christian England comes to\nhelp us answer the plea. It has been demonstrated at length that\nour Southern schools may help to solve the Indian as well as the\nNegro problem, and the Chinaman is yet at our western gate.\n\nIs not the voice of God to us like that He spoke through Moses to\nthose who had just escaped the taskmasters of Egypt?\u2014\u201cSpeak to\nthe children of Israel, that they go forward.\u201d\n\n\nREPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE.\n\nThe Committee on Finance, to whom was referred the financial\nstatement of the Association for the fiscal year ending September\n30, 1879, as presented by the Treasurer, beg leave to report\nthat, in the discharge of the duty assigned to them, your\ncommittee have carefully examined the accounts of the Treasurer,\nincluding a detailed statement of receipts and disbursements,\nalso a statement of endowments and a full list of all the\nproperty owned by the Association, the correctness of which have\nbeen fully certified to by the Board of Auditors appointed by the\nExecutive Committee.\n\nThe total receipts of the Association for the year have been\n$215,431.17. The cost of collecting, including the salaries\nof the District Secretaries and all other expenses connected\nwith their offices, has been 5-84/100 per cent. of the amount\nreceived. The cost of publication, including the distribution\nof 25,000 copies per month of the AMERICAN MISSIONARY, has been\n4-13/100 per cent., and the cost of administration 4-97/100 per\ncent.\n\nYour committee are impressed with the care, fidelity and economy\nshown in all departments, and can suggest no way of reducing\nthe percentage of expenses except by enlarged contributions. It\ncosts just as much time and just as much paper to acknowledge\nthe receipt of $50 as it does of $100. If the patrons of the\nAssociation will double their contributions they will lessen the\npercentage of expenses one-half.\n\nAfter long years of struggle the Association is now out of\ndebt and ready for an advance. The machinery is in order, and\nthe motive power necessary to keep it in motion is the earnest\nprayers of God\u2019s people and a liberal supply of the money\nwhich is so rapidly finding its way to our shores. In view of\nthe grand work which has been done and the still greater work\nto be accomplished, your committee desire to urge upon the\nfriends of the Association the necessity for a large increase\nof contributions the coming year, so that the missionaries and\nlaborers in this good cause may \u201cgo forward.\u201d\n\n                                              JAS. W. SCOVILLE,\n                                              SAMUEL HASTINGS,\n                                              GEO. BUSHNELL,\n                                              CHAS. L. MEAD,\n                                              W. G. HUBBARD,\n                                              JOSEPH H. TOWNE,\n                                              W. J. PHELPS.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE FREEDMEN.\n\nREV. JOS. E. ROY, D. D.,\n\nFIELD SUPERINTENDENT, ATLANTA, GA.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nEDUCATIONAL WORK.\n\nReport of the Committee on Educational Work in the South.\n\n\nAfter speaking of the importance, the providential and varying\ncharacter of the work, the report concludes:\n\nAs now conducted, the agencies of the Association are directly\nconcerned with all grades of instruction, embracing common day\nschools, boarding schools, normal schools, chartered colleges,\ntheological and other professional schools; blending also with\nmental, moral and spiritual culture the teaching of industrial\noccupations, and a training in good manners and right behavior\nin all relations. It seems best that the work should continue to\nhave this multifarious character, that it may mold the whole life\nof this race as it rises into free manhood and full citizenship,\nand bring a positive religious influence to qualify the whole\nmovement. Nevertheless, it is to be desired and expected that,\nin the progress of events, the way will be open for systems of\npublic instruction to be introduced and maintained at the South\nwhich will provide for the primary education of negroes as well\nas white men, and so in time relieve the Association of much of\nits elementary work. In this matter our wisdom is to fall in with\nthe indications of Providence, with no special anxiety either\nto hasten or to hinder the steps of the movement, but to do our\nutmost to prepare the way for wise and right action when it comes.\n\nAs a missionary society we must for a long time give chief\nattention to the education of teachers and preachers for the\ncolored people. That must be done at the South, for Christianity\nand civilization can never be regarded as fully established\namong a people till from among themselves, in their own home\ncountry, are drawn out trained teachers, leaders and ministers of\nreligion. Our normal schools, colleges and theological seminaries\nmust, therefore, absorb, in large measure, the vigorous efforts\nand resources of this Association, that the foundations of these\ninstitutions may be strengthened and their courses of instruction\nadvanced and improved, and especially that aid maybe judiciously\nextended to the young men and women who come out of great poverty\nto seek the advantages of these institutions and to offer\nthemselves for the service of Christ among their own people.\n\nThe report very fitly emphasizes this last-named need, and we do\nearnestly commend it to the consideration and timely beneficence\nof our churches.\n\nThe report shows unmistakable tokens of the Divine favor to this\ndepartment of our work during the last year. Notwithstanding\nthe pressure of hard times and the embarrassment of debt on\nour Association, the work has been steadily maintained, the\nnumber under instruction has been kept up, and in the normal\nschools largely increased; the standard of scholarship in the\nhigher institutions has been advanced; strong testimonials of\nappreciation of the quality of the education given from Southern\nmen of standing and influence, and from Northern visitors, have\nbeen multiplied; and above all, God, by the precious work of\nHis Spirit on the souls of students in nearly every one of the\ninstitutions under charge of the Association, has owned this\nwork, and taken it into full identification with the plan of His\nredeeming providence. For all this let our devout thanks be given\nto Him who permits us to co-operate in His good work of mercy for\na lost world.\n\nAs we enter on a new year of this missionary labor, the signs\nare full of encouragement and hope. The Association is free\nfrom debt, with money in its treasury. A Christian lady has\npledged a large benefaction for providing much needed material\naccommodations for this educational work; the rising sentiment\nof our nation is demanding new guarantees for the rights of the\noppressed Freedmen; old obstacles to the work are giving way,\nand the return of financial prosperity gives promise of larger\nmeans at the disposal of our churches for the Master\u2019s work. May\nwe not hope, also, that a fresh baptism of the Holy Ghost upon\nthe churches, upon the executive officers of the Association,\nand upon the whole working force of missionaries, teachers and\nhelpers on the field, may inspire all with a new spirit of holy\nconsecration, and lead on this educational work in a movement,\nfresh and strong, towards the consummation which we seek and\nwhich the Lord designs? For this let us fervently pray.\n\n                                              A. L. CHAPIN,\n                                              G. B. WILLCOX,\n                                              GEO. M. BOYNTON,\n                                              THOS. N. CHASE,\n                                              J. BRAND,\n                                              S. D. COCHRAN.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCHURCH WORK.\n\nReport of the Committee on Church Work in the South\u2014Abbreviated.\n\n\nThe annual report of the condition and work of churches in the\nSouth under the care of this Association gives occasion for\ngratitude and encouragement; for, while the numbers in themselves\nseem not large, we are to remember that the work is comparatively\na recent one. In 1864 there were but four churches under the\nfostering care of this body; in 1869, only twenty-three; while\nnow they have grown to sixty-seven, with 4,600 members; 745 of\nthese members were added to the churches during the past year,\nand 85 per cent. of the additions were on profession of faith.\n\nIt is much to have 6,219 pupils in Sunday-schools, being drilled\nin the first principles of Divine truth and into a better\nknowledge that religion must mean righteousness. And when we\nremember that the 7,207 scholars in the other schools are all\nunder positive religious influence of the sort we are accustomed\nto, and the 150,000 pupils taught by teachers who have been\ntrained in the schools of the American Missionary Association are\nindirectly receiving something of the same influence, we must\nfeel that the religious work of this Association in the South is\na large one.\n\nA thoroughly good work has been done during the year in \u201cedifying\nthe churches,\u201d building them up into a sturdier virtue, more\nrational views, and a more intelligent zeal. They are evidently\ngrowing in the features of a healthy church life. At several\npoints there has been very encouraging progress in the matter of\nself-help, in building churches and supporting the ministry\u2014a\npoint of prime importance in the development of self-respect and\nmanly ability. There has been an awakened interest and effort\nin the temperance reform, aiding to correct vices which have\nbeen the Freedmen\u2019s besetting sins. There has been a marked\nimprovement in the homes of the colored people, influenced by the\npersonal visitation of devout and sympathetic women who have gone\nSouth for this very purpose. Following this hint, it is suggested\nby some that perhaps Christian colored women, trained in our\ninstitutions, of tried discretion and tact, maybe found fitted\nfor a similar work among their own class, and may find a large\nusefulness opening to them as city missionaries. These churches,\ntoo, in the expression of fellowship at formal ordinations, and\nin the wide-awake meetings of their seven conferences, have\ndone something to promote that spirit of co-operation which the\ncolored man needs to learn.\n\nBut while we must give special care to the nurture and training\nof these infant churches, and while it were to the last degree\nunwise to rush into every opening and organize new churches\nindiscriminately at every point where it may easily be done,\nit is an important question whether the time has not arrived\nwhen we may wisely do more in this direction than hitherto. We\nhave fortified our strategic points and entrenched ourselves in\neducational fortresses that form a cordon of arsenals all around\nthe field, to supply material of war. Shall we not now deploy the\ntroops to feel the way forward, and, pushing out from our base of\nsupplies, begin to occupy the land?\n\nA variety of reasons easily suggest themselves for giving greater\nprominence to this part of the work. The educational needs of\nthe colored race seemed to demand it. With unquestionable wisdom\nthis Association lays chief stress upon its educational work in\nthe South; but it should not be forgotten that the Church is\na leading factor in that work. The schools help the churches.\nTwenty or more of the churches are in more or less close\nconnection with the colleges and schools of this society, and\nthey are among the best and the most flourishing. The more the\nnegro is educated the better he likes our style of religion, and\nthe better he makes it work.\n\nMoreover, the young ministers we are training need them as\nfields. And now that we are raising up a conscientious, godly and\nwell-instructed class of pastors, where shall they find flocks\nunless this Association gathers them?\n\nAgain, Dr. Strieby\u2019s admirable paper last year showed that wherever\nthese churches exist, the thrift and material prosperity of the\ncolored man is greatly increased. He gains in self-respect,\neconomy, foresight, patience. He has a better home and more money,\nand is every way more of a man. Now thrift is a potent civilizer,\nand if we would help the negro in this respect we can do it largely\nthrough the churches.\n\nIt is to such churches, too, that we may look for recruits for\nthat great missionary work in the dark continent which now\nbegins to open before the Christian world with such magnificent\nopportunity. We look for new Livingstones among our colored\nbrethren of the South, and there is a call for them. The eyes\nof English missionary societies are fixed upon the open door\nof Africa, and it seems probable that they will want to send\nout and support all the well-qualified colored missionaries we\ncan furnish. But this cannot be done unless there is a greatly\nincreased missionary spirit among the colored people themselves;\nand to cultivate this missionary spirit we need more churches.\n\nNor will it do to excuse ourselves from this work on the plea\nthat there are other churches in the South to which the negro, by\nimmemorial traditions and long association, is better accustomed,\nand still others which may be at first more attractive to him\nthan ours. The question is not, what would the untutored negro\nprefer, but what will best secure his development and help him to\na nobler life and character. The other method of argument would\nsurrender him to the Roman Catholics at once.\n\nAs a matter of fact, the introduction of these churches of the\npilgrim sort is found to have worked well in two directions. It\nimproves our somewhat frigid method to be warmed up with the\nAfrican ardor; and it improves the negro to be toned down and\ndisciplined to self-control by our methods. A sound, healthy\nreligious life has been developed in many of our churches in ten\nyears, which could not have been developed in fifty years in\nthose churches where the ebullient spirit of the negro is allowed\nto run to riotous excess unchecked.\n\nIt is a noteworthy fact also that our churches have had a large\ninfluence upon the other churches about them. They have been\nrecognized as presenting a higher type of piety and character.\nTheir quiet methods of worship have made the boisterous methods\nof their neighbors unfashionable. Their higher moral standards\nhave been a tonic to the conscience in the others. They have set\nthe negroes to clamoring for an educated ministry.\n\nWhile, then, we would not multiply churches for the mere sake\nof multiplying them, we deem the time opportune for laying\nnew stress upon this part of the work. We would increase our\nconstituency in the South in Christian churches which shall\nshare with us in the work of education and in home missionary\nendeavor, and in the newly-opening foreign field; and we would\never remember that to elevate the negro we must keep him in the\nglowing presence of the cross, red with the heart\u2019s blood of\nDivine love, and of the crown, which may be his as well as his\nwhite brother\u2019s, in that great kingdom where there is neither\nwhite nor black, but where \u201cChrist is all and in all.\u201d\n\n                                              C. H. RICHARDS,\n                                              F. P. WOODBURY,\n                                              A. P. FOSTER,\n                                              F. BASCOM,\n                                              J. F. DUDLEY,\n                                              D. PEEBLES,\n                                              U. THOMPSON.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPROVIDENTIAL CALLS.\n\nBY REV. M. E. STRIEBY, D. D.\n\n\nIt is just a third of a century since the American Missionary\nAssociation was organized. That period has been crowded with\nstirring events, working marked changes at the time in the\nopinions and history of mankind, and pregnant with other and\nfar-reaching consequences. In no respect has this been more true\nthan in regard to the races for whose benefit the Association was\nmainly formed. Thirty-three years ago slavery ruled in America\nwith the iron hand, and with the purpose and prospect of enlarged\nsway; now the slaves are free, and the far-reaching consequences\nof that event are but beginning to be realized. Thirty-three\nyears ago tropical Africa was almost as much unknown as in the\ndays of Herodotus and Ptolemy; now its great central lakes have\nbeen traced and mapped, the great mystery of the Nile sources\nhas been solved, and Stanley has traversed the continent from\nZanzibar to the mouth of the Congo. The far-reaching consequences\nof these discoveries to commerce and to Christian civilization we\nhave not yet begun to realize.\n\nThe American Missionary Association was called into existence\nto take some humble part in these events. The wisdom of its\nexistence was recognized at the outset by the few only; by the\nmany\u2014even of good men\u2014it was regarded with indifference or\nhostility. We that took part in those stirring times find it\ndifficult now to recall their intense earnestness\u2014the inexorable\ncontrol exercised by slavery over the pulpit, the press and the\nforum, the unbounded anxiety of conservative people to avoid or\nto crush the agitation, and their utter impatience with those\nwho persisted in it. On the 7th of March, 1850, Daniel Webster\nmade his famous speech in support of the Fugitive Slave Law, and\nit is humiliating to recall the fulsome eulogies of that speech\nthat came from pulpits and theological seminaries, as well as\nfrom politicians and merchants, and it arouses anew a sense of\nindignation to think of the intimidation attempted toward those\nwho opposed that infamous law. But there _were_ men in all the\nchurches and in both political parties who were fully aroused to\nthe guilt and danger of slavery\u2014who felt that the hour had come\nwhen, through all opposition and danger, they must press for its\noverthrow. Among these persistent agitators were not only such\nstalwart leaders as John Quincy Adams and William Lloyd Garrison,\nbut a large number who may be represented by our late and honored\nbrother, Rev. Simeon S. Jocelyn, who, though one of the gentlest,\nmost amiable and most cautious of men, yet possessed a conscience\nso unclouded, and a sympathy with the slave so strong, that no\nfear of consequences could deter him.\n\nSuch God-fearing men had no commission merely to denounce and\ndestroy. Their call was to aid in spreading a Gospel untinctured\nwith the guilt of slavery, polygamy or caste prejudice. They\nstrove earnestly to induce the most honored and loved of\nmissionary boards, with which they had heretofore co-operated, to\nthrow off all responsibility for slavery and its attendant vices.\nIn this they were unsuccessful, and as they could neither cease\nto labor and contribute for missions, nor work with societies\nwhich they believed to be chargeable with that responsibility,\nthey could do no otherwise than form one that should be free from\nit. In this way, and from this motive, the American Missionary\nAssociation came into existence. It was formed in no spirit of\ncaptiousness or fault-finding; not for discussion, but for work\nin the Master\u2019s vineyard. Hence it soon established missions\nabroad\u2014in Africa, Siam and among the recently emancipated slaves\nin the West Indies; at home\u2014among the white population of the\nWest, the Indians, and, even at that early date, among the\nChinese in California, the refugees from slavery in Canada, and\nin the Slave States themselves.\n\nAmong the dark memories of those early days were the infidel\ntendencies in the anti-slavery ranks. The reformers were so\ngoaded by the indifference and opposition of the orthodox\nchurches that some of them retaliated with bitter denunciations\nagainst Christianity itself. From the outset the American\nMissionary Association took decided ground against this tendency\nand in favor of evangelical religion, and this not vaguely nor\nwithout temptation to swerve. At the convention in Albany in\nwhich the Association was organized, an influential Unitarian\nsuggested the probable sympathy and aid of that wealthy\ndenomination if the platform could be made sufficiently broad and\n\u201cliberal\u201d to admit of co-operation. Its response was given in\nits constitution, which required \u201cEvangelical sentiments\u201d as a\ncondition of membership; and that there might be no mistake as to\nwhat it meant by \u201cevangelical,\u201d a star note was appended giving\nits explicit definition\u2014a creed as commendable for its brevity\nas its sound orthodoxy. The elder Dr. Tyng once said: \u201cI love the\nAmerican Missionary Association because it is true to Christ as\nwell as to the slave.\u201d\n\nThus launched, and with this flag at its mast-head, the\nAssociation responded to its first call, and sped on its way,\ntill from the terrific storm-cloud of war there sounded forth its\nsecond call. That next providential call was to the work among\nthe Freedmen. It was so recent, and the response is so fresh in\nmind, that a brief rehearsal will suffice. Abraham Lincoln voiced\nthe sentiment of the North when he said that the war was carried\non to save the Union. God revealed His own purpose to be not that\nonly, but also to free the slave. It was not two months after the\nfirst cannon shot fell on Fort Sumter till the escaping slaves\nfound their way to Fort Monroe, and the force of circumstances,\nin spite of all reluctance, compelled their recognition as free\nmen. Those escaping fugitives began their march from Egypt to\nCanaan. A few scattered bands headed the column, but soon its\nnumbers swelled till the proclamation of emancipation, like the\nwords of God to Moses at the banks of the Red Sea, said to four\nand a half millions of people, \u201cGo forward.\u201d When the sea opened\nto them and closed upon the armies of their oppressors, they\nwere free; but they were, and are still, in the wilderness. Yet\ntwo lines of spontaneous enthusiasm broke forth\u2014that of the\nex-slaves for learning, and that of the North to supply it.\n\nIn that day there was no longer a question as to the need of\nthe American Missionary Association, or of the wisdom of its\nexistence. It was complimented with having \u201cbuilded wiser than\nit knew.\u201d Churches and individuals chose it as their channel for\nreaching this new field of patriotic and Christian labor. The\nBoston Council of Congregational Churches of 1865 recognized it\nas having been providentially raised up for the hour, and voted\na call to the churches to give it $250,000 for the year. The\nAssociation promptly met this new responsibility, and organized\nthe necessary measures for collecting funds at home and abroad,\nand with so much success that when the year was ended its\ntreasury had received a little more than the great sum named. It\nhas since moved forward with larger resources and a larger work.\nIts income for the fourteen years from its organization till the\nwar began averaged $40,810.57 per annum; for the fourteen years\nsince the war, $279,269.18 per annum.\n\nA third call comes to the Association\u2014the call of this hour. The\nearly enthusiasm in the Freedmen work subsided. This new call\nsprings from no sudden revival of that enthusiasm, but rather\nfrom that \u201csober second thought\u201d that follows the reaction from\nit, and which comes from the pressure of hard, stern facts. I\ncannot, therefore, explain the present aspect of affairs without\nreverting to the cause of that decline of interest. The zeal of\nChristian people slackened when they found the work among the\nFreedmen could not all be finished in fifteen or twenty years.\nThis was the general expectation at the outset, strange as it\nmay seem\u2014nay, amusing, if the mistake were not so serious. The\northodox and well-ordered Christian man has no doubt of the need\nof _perpetual_ help for the West, and he cheerfully aids it\nthrough the accredited channels, the Bible, Tract, Sunday-school,\nEducation, College and Church Building Societies, and especially\nthe honored Home Missionary Board; though those Western settlers\nhave behind them the culture of more than a thousand years,\nwith the personal education of New England homes, schools and\nchurches, and also the business training among the shrewd and\nthrifty people. But these Negroes, who have behind them only\nuntold ages of barbarism and oppression, and whose homes are\nhuts, whose schools are few, whose ministers are ignorant, who\nhave no capital and no business training\u2014when these people loom\nup before this good Christian man, he is amazed and discouraged\nif a few years, a few books and a few teachers do not end all\nresponsibility for them. His creed in regard to them is as brief\nas his patience, and may be given in the words of the poet:\n\n    \u201cThey need but little here below,\n     Nor need that little long.\u201d\n\nIn like manner the well-ordered citizen lost his enthusiasm for\nthe Freedmen. He had been so long under the strain of anxiety\nabout the war that he was weary of it and of everything that\nreminded him of it. Then there followed a succession of events in\nregard to the Freedmen that played upon his hopes and fears till\nhe was doubly weary of them.\n\nFirst came the accession of Andrew Johnson to the Presidency\non the death of President Lincoln. Bright hopes arose. Lincoln\nwas too mild; but the stalwart war-Governor of Tennessee, the\nunflinching Union man, the Moses of the colored people, as he\nstyled himself, he would do what Lincoln\u2019s amiability would\nhave left undone. What a Providential ordering it was; the\nsilver lining on the black cloud of the assassination. But alas,\nhow soon the change! This Moses led the colored people not to\nCanaan, but delivered them over to the murderous bands of the Ku\nKlux; and the North, who again found the whole affair lying at\nloose ends, was very much discouraged. Then General Grant was\nelected, and hope again sprang up. The soldier-President would\ntake care of the Freedmen. He did; but the troops stationed at\nthe State houses of Columbia and New Orleans became at length\nan intolerable vexation to the South and an utter weariness to\nthe again discouraged North. President Hayes brought again \u201cthe\nera of good feeling.\u201d The troops were removed. There was a time\nof quiet for the colored people. Wade Hampton and Lamar pledged\nthe reciprocal good will of the South. I believe that these\nleaders were sincere, but they little understood the import of\ntheir pledge, or the mighty power that slumbered in the elements\nbeneath their feet, \u201cWe now witness the upheaval of that power,\nthe sweeping away of those pledges like the chaff of the summer\nthreshing-floor, the crushing again of the Negro, his relief\nby flight to Kansas, and the symbols of Southern methods and\npurposes revealed in the Chisholm murder and the Yazoo tragedy.\u201d\n\nThese facts, this serious aspect of affairs, and the palpable\ninefficiency of temporary remedies, are awakening the North\nto a fresh sense of responsibility and to the use of thorough\nremedies. One evidence of this is found in the turning tide of\npolitical affairs. A still more ominous one is foreshadowed\nin the enthusiasm gathered around the flag of the Union. In\n1872 Charles Sumner\u2014zealous Union man as he was\u2014moved in the\nSenate that the names of victories in our civil war should\nnot be inscribed on our national regimental flags, and in the\ndecline of public interest those flags lay neglected in the cases\nwhere they were deposited. But a few weeks since the State of\nConnecticut removed her flags from the State Arsenal to the new\nCapitol in Hartford, when, lo, ten thousand veteran survivors\nand one hundred thousand spectators, making the grandest popular\ndemonstration ever witnessed in the State, assembled to bear\nthose flags with honor to their new resting place. I believe in\nthe power of the ballot, and I revere the flag, but I want to\nraise my humble voice in warning against expecting too much from\nelections, and against the terrible effects of an appeal to arms.\nHas not the nation awaited with anxiety many times for election\nreturns only to be disappointed in the permanent effects, and\nhave we not felt enough of the dread evils of war to stand aghast\nat the thought of its renewal? Let me use the words of Paul and\nsay, \u201cBehold, I show you a more excellent way.\u201d\n\nI present three pictures:\n\nThe _first_ shows a gathering of colored people peacefully\nassembled to promote their political welfare. But see that rush\nof armed men, the brief unequal struggle, and the flight of\nthose who met only to exercise a constitutional right. In the\nbackground of the picture is a jail broken open and the venerable\nJudge Chisholm and his little son clinging to his knees, and his\nheroic daughter endeavoring to shield her father, all butchered\nin cold blood. In that background is another scene. That strong\nman, the leader of Ku Klux bands, whose hands are dyed with the\nblood of innocent colored men, and who could show the medal which\nthe grateful South had given him, is himself murdered in open\nday, because he dared to announce himself not as a Republican,\nbut as an independent candidate for office. The worst of all is\nthat there is no legal remedy for these crimes. The National\nGovernment cannot reach them with punishment, and the State\ngovernments will not. They can only be tried in Southern courts\nand before Southern juries, and these have acquitted the murderer\nof the Chisholm father and children and refuse to try Barksdale\nfor the Yazoo murder. Thus does the South make itself solid, and\nwipe out in blood the least traces of dissent from its supremacy.\nThe North is moved by all this\u2014indignant, determined, and well\nit may be; for what now avails the four years of war and the\nfourteen years of attempt at justice and conciliation?\n\nBut I show you _another_ picture. It carries us back a few years.\nThe Legislature of South Carolina is in session. Its members are\nmostly black men. They have generally no property and pay no\ntaxes, yet they have taxed that already impoverished State to the\nverge of destruction, not for public improvement, but to lavish\nit upon themselves, in suppers, wines, personal perquisites, in\njobs and in railroad schemes. No more scandalous or reckless\nplundering of a public treasury has ever been practiced in\nAmerica, and that is saying a great deal. Why is this little\nhandful of mock legislators allowed to do this? Why do not the\npeople rush in upon them and hurl them from the places they so\ndishonor? Why? Simply because there stands as a guard a file of\nUnited States soldiers\u2014not themselves sufficient in numbers to\nbe formidable, but representing the National Government, and to\ntouch them is to touch it. The South is indignant, determined,\nand do you wonder? The troops are now gone, the black legislators\nare dispersed and white taxpayers are in their places; and rising\nabove all other considerations is the purpose of these taxpayers\nthat, at whatever cost, and by whatever needed methods, be it by\ntissue ballots or by shotguns, those irresponsible plunderers\nshall never come back again into power. You blame them; but I\nfear you would do the same yourselves under like provocation.\nIf the General Government, by means of a bloody war, should\nsubdue the Western States, and then enfranchise in any one State\nenough Indians to outvote the whites, and those Indians should\nre-enact the plunderings of the Columbia Legislature, how long\nwould the West bear it? I suspect that very quickly every Indian\nwould be converted into a good Indian; but it would be in the\nWestern sense\u2014he would be a dead Indian. Brethren of the North,\nmake the case your own. Put yourself in your Southern brother\u2019s\nplace, and judge him by your own impulses. What, then, is the\ntrue remedy for this great evil? To answer this we must honestly\nconsider what the real evil is. These South Carolina taxpayers do\nnot crush these black voters because they are black. They would\ndo the same to the \u201cpoor whites\u201d if they, having the numerical\nforce, should enact the same wrongs. Nor is it because they are\nRepublicans. It would be the same if they called themselves\nDemocrats and did the same things. The trouble, therefore, is not\nwith the man\u2019s color or party, but with the man himself\u2014with his\nignorance, his degradation and his facility in being used as the\ntool of designing men. _The remedy, then, is not to change his\ncolor or his party, but his character._ All other remedies are\ndelusive, and it is a national folly and crime to tamper longer\nwith them. We have tried them; and to try them over again will\nbe but to swing like a pendulum between the soldiers in front\nof the State house and the bulldozers at the elections. It is a\nshame and a grievous wrong to leave matters as they are. It is a\nwrong to the blacks to compel them to suffer in the South or flee\nto Kansas. It is unfair to the South to put them to the dreadful\nalternative of suffering or doing such great wrongs. It is a\nshame for an enlightened nation to keep itself thus embroiled, to\nthe hindrance of its prosperity and the jeopardy of its peace.\n\nLet me show you my _third_ picture, which presents \u201cthe more\nexcellent way.\u201d In the foreground is a school-house and near by\nis a church. Around and in the distance are pleasant little homes\nand well cultivated lands. These are the instruments for working\nthe needed change; they will make the Freedman intelligent,\nvirtuous and industrious; will give him property and responsible\ninterest in the welfare of the State. But you say this is a\nlong process. Admitted; but what if there is no other? A slave\ncan be changed into a freeman in an hour, but to change him\ninto an intelligent man will take years; to transform millions\nof ignorant, cringing and penniless men into intelligent and\nresponsible citizens and Christians will require generations.\nThe acorn favorably planted will germinate into an oak in a few\ndays, and though small, it is a real oak; but it will be many\nyears before its broad branching arms will give wide shelter, or\nits girth and strength of stem will yield heavy timber. A few\nsuch plants started in good soil and carefully tended will come\nforward rapidly, but the wide growth on arid plains or in cold\nswamps will long remain dwarfs. The rapid progress of some of\nthese colored people under adequate training shows what _can_ be\ndone; the backwardness of the mass shows what _must_ be done.\nHere is the call to this Association to bear its part in this\ngreat work in America. It is no light task and no short work.\nThe North is once more aroused to its magnitude as well as its\nnecessity, and in that great effort the better portion of the\nSouth is ready to join us. God forbid that any delusive scheme or\nguilty indifference should hinder its steady progress.\n\nThe wide Atlantic rolls between America and Africa, but a strange\nconnecting wire links the two together. The battery at yonder end\nwas charged with the dreadful electricity that arose from burning\nvillages, slaughtered people and captured slaves. The sounds that\nswept along that wire were the wails of the \u201cmiddle passage.\u201d\nThe delivery at this end was the toil, the tears, and the blood\nof the slave plantation. That connection is now broken. Does God\nmean to establish no other? Yes, the battery is to be placed in\nAmerica, charged with the light of its learning and religion; the\nhum of the wires will be the song of the returning heralds of\nsalvation, and the delivery will be the breaking forth of Gospel\nlight in benighted Africa. Such a change is worthy of God\u2019s\nwonder-working grace, and, thanks to His name, it has begun.\n\nConverging lines of providential purpose have met. In 1856\nBurton and Speke began the first movement in the great line\nof modern discovery in tropical Africa; in 1858 they first\nsighted Lake Tanganyika. In 1860 Speke and Giant set out on\nthe second expedition from Zanzibar; in 1862 they caught their\nfirst glimpse of the Victoria Nyanza. Thence onward moved the\nheroic procession\u2014Sir Samuel Baker, Winwood Reade, Col. Gordon,\nLivingstone and others, till last of all Stanley emerged at the\nmouth of the Congo in August, 1877. A marked line of American\nconvergence also began in 1856 with the first shedding of blood\nin the struggle with the slave power in Kansas. John Brown\u2019s\nraid came in 1859. The rebellion began in 1861; the slaves\nwere proclaimed free in 1863, and their education began almost\nwith the war. Other societies have their own coincidences in\nthis great work, but this Association having the distinction\nof opening the first school among the Freedmen, it is a matter\nof special interest with us that about one month after Stanley\nreached the mouth of the Congo, we sent out our first company of\n_colored_ missionaries to Africa, all of whom had been born in\nslavery, were educated since emancipation, and, moved by the love\nof Christ and of their fatherland, had gone thither to preach\nthe Gospel. This is to us the beginning of the other part of the\ngreat work to which this Association is called, for Africa and\nfor America.\n\nWe have the appliances for the work in our schools, our theological\ndepartments and in our churches; in our experiences in tropical\nAfrica of the terrible death-rate of white missionaries, and in\nthe comparatively good health of the colored. Moreover, our decks\nare cleared for action by the removal of the debt that has so long\nhampered us. We can now handle our sails and our guns. May the\nwinds of heaven waft us on our course! Then again we see a way of\nrelief from the retrenchment enforced upon us by the debt and the\nhard times. Buildings were needed\u2014some to be enlarged, others to\nbe newly erected\u2014but all such claims had to be sternly denied,\nmuch as it cost us to deny; but now, in the good providence of\nGod, the generous benefaction of Mrs. Stone comes to our relief to\nsupply just such buildings. The return of prosperity to the country\nencourages us to hope that the added expense in sustaining the\nenlarged work will be met. That return of prosperity\u2014shall it be\na curse or blessing? Shall it be the mad rush of muddy waters urged\non by avarice and ambition, and bearing on its turbulent surface\nonly reckless adventure, wild speculation, extravagant personal\nexpenditure, unscrupulous public plunderings, ending at last and\nagain in the dead sea of stagnation, bankruptcy, and, worst of all,\nin the wrecking of character, imprisonment, insanity, or suicide?\nShall it not rather be consecrated, that it may be sanctified and\nperpetuated\u2014like the beneficent waters of the Nile carried out\ninto channels of benevolence, purified as it is quietly borne\nalong and broken in smaller rills, bearing everywhere over this\nsin-parched earth the streams of salvation, making it to bloom with\nthe beauty and fragrance of holiness and to bear fruit to the glory\nof God? Christian people ought to begin with the rising tide of\nthis prosperity to enlarge the streams of their benevolence, lest,\nbefore they are aware, they be swept into the irresistible current.\nEspecially do we ask the friends of this cause to recognize this\nauspicious era and plan to meet in some adequate measure the vast\nwork before us.\n\nThe hour and the call have come. The nation is re-awakened to\nits great duty to the late slaves; they are themselves awaking\nto the glorious opening for them as citizens and Christians in\nAmerica, and they are enthusiastic to aid in redeeming the land\nof their fathers. The possibilities of African regeneration are\nenkindling the hearts of Christians in Germany, in Great Britain\nand in America. God\u2019s providence is opening the way and sending\nHis commands along the lines. Well may it be said to the Church\nof Christ in America as Mordecai said to Esther, \u201cWho knoweth\nwhether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE PROVIDENTIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NEGRO IN AMERICA.\n\nREV. E. H. MERRELL, PRESIDENT OF RIPON COLLEGE.\n\n\nThe significance of the negro in America cannot be understood\nwithout study in the light of the providence of God. It is not\npresumption to seek in the course of events the divine thought;\nit is rather presumption to assume that events occur without\na divine purpose. \u201cThey that love to trace a divine hand will\nalways have a divine hand to trace.\u201d It is true that men have\ncommitted unspeakable folly in attempting to force the thoughts\nof the great God into the channels of their intellectual\npettiness. Philosophies of history written with a provincial\nscholarship, under the eye of an unsound philosophy or the\nextravagancies of religious enthusiasm, must from the nature of\nthe case be unsound; so a too particular and minute description\nof the ways of Providence in the interest of a preconceived\ntheory of life, or of some specific reform or \u201ccause,\u201d leads to\nfanaticism and exposure to contempt. There are sins committed\nonly by the good, if the solecism may be tolerated, and among\nthem is a profane assumption of knowledge in regard to the\npurposes of God. But, on the other hand, it is greater folly\nto assume that God has left the world out of His thought and\nprovidential care, and that the course of the world is not made\nby the efficiency of His word. It is absurd, also, to assume that\ngreat providential courses are undiscoverable by the intelligence\nof man. \u201cWhen it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather:\nfor the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather\nto-day: for the sky is red and lowering. O, ye hypocrites, ye\ncan discern the face of the sky; but ye cannot discern the\nsigns of the times.\u201d We may make ourselves quite ridiculous\nin attempting to literalize the tails, wings, breastplates,\nteeth, hair, faces, crowns, shapes of the horse-like locusts\nof John\u2019s apocalypse; but it is quite within the reach of our\nfaculties to find the key to his book and to unfold its prophetic\ninstructions and consolations. The use of the tabernacle as the\ndwelling-place of Jehovah\u2019s glory it is possible to find by a\nsimple exercise of the ken of philosophic interpretation; but\nthe symbolic import of the coverings of fine twined linen and\nwoven goats\u2019 hair and rams\u2019 skins dyed red, we must leave to the\ndogmatism of unlettered exegesis. It is not our fault, then,\nthat we are looking too intently for the ways of God through the\nhistory of the world, but rather that we do not look aright.\n* * * * If it be true that \u201cthe Most High ruleth in the kingdom\nof men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will;\u201d that \u201cHe changeth\nthe times and the seasons; He removeth kings and setteth up\nkings;\u201d that \u201cpromotion cometh neither from the east, nor from\nthe west, nor from the south; but God is the Judge; He putteth\ndown one and setteth up another;\u201d\u2014if it be true that the Lord\n\u201cthat stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad\nthe earth\u201d by Himself also, \u201cfrustrateth the tokens of the liars,\nand maketh diviners mad;\u201d that He \u201csayeth of Cyrus, He is My\nshepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,\u201d surnaming him, and\ngirding him, though he knew him not;\u2014if, in short, the Lord is\nGod, and His providence extends over nature, over nations, over\nindividuals, over free acts, and over sinful acts,\u2014surely we\nshall not gather the significance of any great matter in the\nworld\u2019s progress without such a study of the facts, and such an\ninterpretation of them as shall disclose the main trend of the\ndivine purposes.\n\nI think I hazard little in saying that the foothold of the Negro\nin the United States is providentially significant in relation to\na great onward movement for the evangelization of the world. And\nin this statement I have more in view than the Christianizing of\nthe dark continent. In relation to this, it may signify much; but\nin relation to the whole kingdom of Christ, it signifies more.\n\n(1.) The truthfulness of this statement holds our conviction\nwhen we view the facts in relation to the great end of all\nhistory; and this is no transcendental or visionary gaze. It is\nthe perpetual characteristic of human folly to see events only\nin their immediate relations; whereas, the present moment can\ninterpret nearly nothing. Philosophy concerns itself with remote\ncauses and ends. \u201cProvidence,\u201d says Guizot, \u201churries not Himself\nto display to-day the consequence of the principle He yesterday\nannounced. He will draw it out in the lapse of ages. Even\naccording to our reasoning, logic is none the less sure because\nit is slow.\u201d God\u2019s thought is from eternity; but it is only\nbecause God has purposed that a science of history is possible,\nor the end of history discoverable. Its philosophy is often based\non the assumption of the unity of the race; for the unity of\nthe race it is better to say, the unity of the divine purpose.\nSaid Augustine of old: \u201cGod cannot have left the course of human\naffairs, the growth and decay of nations, their victories and\ndefeats, unregulated by the laws of His providence.\u201d And as the\nlatest deliverance of philosophy we have from Professor Flint,\n\u201cThe ultimate and greatest triumph of historical philosophy\nwill really be neither more nor less than the full proof of\nProvidence, the discovery by the process of scientific method of\nthe divine plan, which unites and harmonizes the apparent chaos\nof human actions contained in history into a cosmos.\u201d Suppose we\nassume, as the end of history, the establishment of a kingdom of\nrighteousness, or the perfection of the members of the race for\nan endless society; that the increase of wealth, the extending\nof knowledge, the refinements of culture, have ultimate value\nonly in relation to such a kingdom or society; that the method\nof procedure toward the attainment of this end involves the\nencouragements and chastisements, the rewards and disciplines,\nthe pulling down amid building up, the slaying and making\nalive, which belong to the law of discipleship for character.\nSuppose, further, that we find ourselves living in a period\nwhen the Christian world is peculiarly stirred with missionary\nenthusiasm, and laboring to bring the whole world to membership\nin the everlasting kingdom; and yet, again, that we have brought\nto the midst of the most Christian nation millions of the most\nbarbarous people, and put in such relation to that nation that\nthe questions concerning them necessarily involve religious and\nmissionary aspects\u2014assuming all this, and taking into view\nthe profound agitations, the vast numbers of beings involved,\nthe enormous commercial interests that have been staked, the\nslow uprooting of inveterate race prejudices, the transforming\nof societies, the hot wrath of God in sweeping commonwealths\nwith the besom of civil war, it becomes easily credible that\nthe Negro in the United States signifies a great providential\non moving the conversion of the world. To find in this Negro\nproblem nothing but the lust which brought him to our shores, or\nthe instrumentality of the wealth which he has been the means\nof accumulating, or the object of a sentimental pietism which\nwould colonize him, or a nuisance for progressive abatement, is\nto attempt to solve the puzzle of a bewildering maze without the\nexercise of wisdom, or to have exit from a labyrinth without a\nclew. But, with the right end in view, all the mysteries of it\nare easily solved.\n\nIt has been recently said, by an able English writer, that the\ngreat plague of 1348-9 \u201cis a totally new departure in English\nhistory, incomparably more important in its permanent effects\nthan the conquest of William, the civil war of the fifteenth\ncentury, the civil war and the revolution of the seventeenth. It\nhas left abiding results on the present condition of England. To\nit we owe the peculiar position of the English aristocracy and\nthe equally peculiar position of the peasant. It created the poor\nlaw and the trades\u2019 union. It was the origin of Lollardism, which\nwas itself the precursor of the Reformation. Fortunately, it\noccurred after representative institutions had become a necessary\npart of English political life, or it would have destroyed\nthem.\u201d Under Providence, Lollardism and the Reformation were the\nfinal cause of pestilence, and it might have counted far more\nif the end had been more exactly understood at the time of the\ndesolations.\n\n(2.) But that the Negro in the United States means, under\nProvidence, a forward movement in the work of evangelizing the\nworld may be inferred from _the moral and Christian element he\nhas forced into American politics_. The final cause of a special\nProvidence may not be apprehended by the large part of those\nwho are the witnesses of its procedure; but its drift may be\nnoted from the things they are constrained, under God, to think\nand say and do about it. A nation may be girded to a task, even\nwithout recognition of the hand or purpose of Him who girds; but\nthat nation will be saying and doing very significant things.\nNow, the great enthusiasms of our political life for the century\nfollowing the achieving of our independence have resulted in\none way or another from the presence of the Negro. And this is\nthe same as to say that the Negro has been the unwitting cause\nof the moral and religious elements in politics; for there are\nno great enthusiasms which have not a basis in either morals\nor religion. The courts, Cabinet, Congress, legislatures, the\npulpit, the platform, the hearth, have furnished the arena for\ndebate, harangue and purpose, which have enlarged our views\nof the brotherhood of man, kindled an unexampled enthusiasm\nfor humanity, and deepened those moral convictions which are\nthe basis of sound character. But for all these superior\nachievements in virtue, the black man has been the occasion,\nand must have our thanks. Selfish men, irreligious men, profane\nmen, under the guidance of an unseen hand, have become the stout\nadvocates of the Christian principles of brotherhood and of duty\nto carry a Gospel to every Creature. * * * *\n\nThis advocacy of righteousness toward man, and of the rights of\nman as man, has become so much a matter of course with us that we\nare likely to overlook its vast significance. Even on our Puritan\nsoil it was not from the beginning so. The \u201caustere morality and\ndemocratic spirit of the Puritans\u201d even did not keep them clear\nof sin of human bondage. \u201cTheir experience of Indian ferocity and\ntreachery, acting on their theologic convictions, led them early\nand readily to the belief that these savages, and, by logical\ninference, all savages, were the children of the devil, to be\nsubjugated, if not extirpated, as the Philistine inhabitants of\nCanaan had been by the Israelites under Joshua. Indian slavery,\nsometimes forbidden by law, but usually tolerated, if not\nentirely approved, by public opinion, was among the early usages\nof New England; and from this to negro slavery\u2014the slavery of\nany variety of pagan barbarians\u2014was an easy transition.\u201d But at\nthe time of the Declaration of Independence public sentiment had\nalready greatly changed.\n\nIn the original draft of this document there was a specific\nindictment of George III., which was prophetic of the \u201cfurnace\nblast\u201d beneath which the nation for a hundred subsequent years\nwas to \u201cwait the pangs of transformation\u201d into a man-loving,\nmission-promoting people. Mr. Jefferson, in the draft of the\nimmortal Declaration, reflected the public thought and feeling\nso closely that he has been accused by many of plagiarism. We\nseem thus early to find the pre-intimations of a nation in\nits public acts ranging itself on the side of a vast scheme\nof Providence. The indictment referred to is as follows:\n\u201cDetermined to keep an open market where men should be bought\nand sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every\nlegislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable\ncommerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no\nfact of distinguished dye, he is now exciting those very people\nto rise in arms among us, and purchase that liberty of which\nhe has deprived them by murdering the people on whom he also\nobtruded them, thus paying off former crimes committed against\nthe _liberties_ with crimes which he urges them to commit against\nthe lives of another.\u201d Mr. Jefferson, in his \u201cWorks,\u201d says:\n\u201cThe clause, too, reprobating the enslaving of the inhabitants\nof Africa was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and\nGeorgia;\u201d and he adds, \u201cour Northern brethren also, I believe,\nfelt a little tender under those censures; for, though their\npeople had very few slaves themselves, yet they had been pretty\nconsiderable carriers of them to others.\u201d It is as impossible,\nat present, as it is needless to proceed from this initial point\nthrough discussions for the formation of platforms and parties,\nand from these to specific laws, and from laws to the violation\nof them, and civil war. If a just God has been ruling among the\naffairs of the nation, it is infidelity to doubt that He has been\nguiding this vast and tumultuous slavery conflict to some great\nend for the enlargement of His kingdom in the earth. The moral\nand religious aspects of American political questions for the\nlast three generations have a Divine significance unsuspected by\nthe actors in our national drama.\n\n(3.) But of greater significance still is the fact that the\ncoming of the Negro incorporates a missionary element in our\nnational life. In the large advance movement now making for the\nevangelizing of the race, it is evident that the colored people\nare not to go out through a Red Sea into a wilderness, to become\na peculiar people to whom shall be committed the oracles of\nGod, and from whom shall arise one like the Messiah. No person\nis now so superficial as not to see that, whether we will or\nnot, the Negro has come to stay. He is becoming even more and\nmore an element in the sum of those experiences which we call\nour national life. He has not come to fit himself to become an\nuplifter; he is rather here to do that work which shall fit and\ncause this new and great nation to become in a peculiar way the\nuplifter of peoples. It is the resistance of this idea which\nhas been the fundamental reason of all our national turbulence.\nProvidence meant one thing; the selfishness of man another. God\nhas given unmistakably the \u201csign of the prophet Jonas;\u201d man\nsees nothing but the redness of a lowering sky. Can we fail\nto be impressed with the fact that a being whose not remote\nancestors were, if not savage, at least barbarian, has now come\ninto the possession of every element of American civilization?\nThe negro has our language, dress, civil customs, religion,\ndomestic and social life, and in the main, our vices. He is a\nvoter, law-maker, executive, educator, freeholder, priest, and\nhead of a Christian household. He has reached high proficiency\nin many branches of learning, and is skilled in all the arts\nwith which we are acquainted. In a vast number of cases, through\ncrime be it granted, he is bone of our bone and flesh of our\nflesh. He is less a ward than citizen, and hardly more pupil than\ninstructor. His absolute severance from fatherland,\u2014his history,\nhis tenacity of life and of race characteristics, yet, while\nretaining race characteristics, his greedy absorption of the best\nelements of civilization,\u2014his poverty and his possibilities,\nawakening our sympathies and challenging our benevolent\nenterprise,\u2014his tenacious hold upon our soil, our customs and\nour hearts,\u2014these and many things beside indicate that he has\ncome to stimulate, to lift us to a higher form of evangelical\nenterprise than that exhibited hitherto by any people. We are not\nmerely to make missionaries of the black people; but we through\nthem are to be ourselves made missionaries. It seems to be the\nwill of God that the nation should set itself to the work of\nChristianizing the world.\n\n(4.) To add yet another evidence that the signs of the times\nare to be interpreted in the line of advancing evangelization,\nI would mention the genius of the Negro for piety. Colonel\nPreston, who has written intelligently on the subject of the\nreligious education of the Negro, says that he has adopted\nall the vices of the white race except suicide, duelling and\nreligious skepticism. His voice is not more flexible and pure\nthan, his faith is confiding and strong. And this is not a small\nmatter. The world doubtless has great need of brains, but it\nhas vaster need of character. Of the stones God can raise up\nchildren to Abraham; but it requires no miracle to raise up\nchildren to Plato. There is no fear for the brains of any race\nthat will accept Christianity. To virtue, knowledge will surely\nbe added. It is foolish for us Anglo-Saxons to assume that we\nhave found the best expression of religion. It would be like\nthe claim of the Pharisee, who assumed that the end of the law\nwas fulfilled in himself. The worldliness of the church is at\nthe present time more conspicuous than the churchliness of the\nworld. A person who lives simply according to the doctrine of\nChrist is so singular as to get special notice in the church news\nof the religious press. So long as it can be truthfully said\nthat \u201cit is only by a special and rare experience that young\nmen in the church settle the question of their life-work by the\nsimple test of usefulness and duty; and if a young man is found\npondering the question in this view, it is regarded as a case of\nunusual piety, and he is directed at once to the ministry; and\nif an older man begins to inquire how he can do the most good\nwith his property, it is accepted as evidence of special growth\nin grace, a ripening for heaven\u201d\u2014so long, I say, as this can be\ntruthfully said, it is perfectly within bounds to affirm that\nthe current expression of the religion of Christ is nothing less\nthan a shame. It is rational to hope that the Negro may help us\nto a fitter expression. I admit his crudities, extravagancies and\nimmoralities, but he has a genius for religion nevertheless. It\nhas been conjectured that there was a period when the ancestors\nof the Athenians were to be in no otherwise distinguished from\ntheir barbarian neighbors than by some finer taste in the\ndecoration of their arms, and something of a loftier spirit in\nthe songs which told of the exploits of their warriors. But these\nrude attempts were prophetic of their \u00e6sthetic triumphs; they had\na genius for the beautiful.\n\nIt seems to me that Africa is the fitting continent in whose\nmysterious solitudes the greatest explorer of this generation\nshould die in service and on his knees. He symbolized the\npossibilities of the Negritto race for the expression of the\nlife of the Son of God, and mutely prophesied of the ages to\ncome. This race, with its greed for civilization and its natural\ncapabilities for religion, is in vital connection with the\nforemost nation of these latter times. Does not this signify the\nincoming of a more thorough righteousness, a loftier faith, and a\ngreat advance movement for Christianizing the world?\n\nWhether I have correctly formulated the course of Providence\nor not, it is clear that the Negro is in the United States for\na purpose, and that purpose is no petty one. He has been the\noccasion of the most exhaustive discussion of the subject of the\nrights of man, of the formation of a great national party, and\nof the largest civil war of modern times. He is now the most\nconsiderable element in national politics. If Providence is a\nscheme of means and ends, in which particular events are chosen\nto further great ends, and if a just God is presiding over the\ndestiny of our nation, it is simply illogical to conclude that\nthe foothold of the Negro on the continent is not a thing of vast\nsignificance. And if this be true, every question concerning him\nhas a new importance. If Pharaoh had understood that the Hebrew\nbondsmen were a chosen generation, he would have carried on the\nbrick business in a different way. This whole Negro question\nneeds study in a new light, \u201clest haply we be found even to\nfight against God.\u201d Governor St. John, of Kansas, in answer to\na question from the South, how to stop the Negro exodus, has\nrecently said:\n\n\u201cRent the Negro land and sell him supplies at fair prices. Stop\nbulldozing him. Respect the sanctity of his family. Make him feel\nthat he is just as safe in his person and family, and in all\ncivil and political rights, as he can be in Kansas or any other\nNorthern Slate. Then he will not want to come North. Unless you\ndo this, the Red Sea will open before him and he will pass over\ndry-shod; and you of the South, attempting to stop him, will be\noverwhelmed, as was Pharaoh and his hosts.\u201d\n\nThese are sharp words, and their rebuke is doubtless needed. It\nis probably not important to stop the Negro exodus. For both\nthe Negro and the white race it is needful that large numbers\nbe removed from the scenes of their old servitude. The Negro\nwill rise faster and will more readily be the connecting and\nreconciling link between two antagonistic forms of civilization.\nThis is but a stage in those wilderness wanderings by which he\nis being fitted to perform his part in the drama of the world\u2019s\nrenewing. In Kansas and everywhere he must have chance to develop\naccording to what is in him, and there need be no fear that he\nwill not act his part well.\n\nThis theme suggests many practical matters concerning the\nimportance and the methods of home evangelization. These cannot\nbe discussed in this paper; but I wish to raise again the\nquestion asked by large numbers of our most sagacious men, viz.:\nwhether, in view of what seem to be vast providential designs\nconcerning the inhabitants of this continent, our home work\nis not suffering comparative neglect? This is my deliberate\nconviction. For the colored man, at least, we are doing but a\nfraction of what it would be profitable to do. He is very far as\nyet from entering into his rest, and for long years yet we are to\nshare with him \u201cthe pangs of transformation.\u201d\n\n    \u201cBefore the joy of peace must come\n      The pains of purifying.\n        God give us grace,\n        Each in his place,\n        To bear his lot,\n        And murmuring not,\n    Endure, and wait, and labor.\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCHURCH WORK IN THE SOUTH.\n\nBY REV. C. L. WOODWORTH.\n\n\nThe subject before us is \u201cChurch Work in the South.\u201d This\nwork, though it seems to be fundamental to every missionary\norganization, has yet been sharply challenged both as to its\npropriety and expediency. Put thus on the defensive, it may be\nwell to recur to first principles, in order to satisfy ourselves\nthat the church is the _unit idea_ in all Christian labor. And\nto unfold that idea in the conversion of men, and to make it\npotential in society, through the preaching of the Gospel and\nthe sanctified lives of believers, is the end of the family,\nof the school, and of all the forces which go to civilize and\nuplift communities. That work which does not aim at the church\nas its end, however refining and ennobling it may be in itself,\nfails, utterly and infinitely, to realize the ideal of the New\nTestament, or the ideals of history as seen in the progress of\nChrist\u2019s kingdom in the earth. When, therefore, a society like\nthe one whose anniversary we are now celebrating presents itself\nfor our suffrage and our support, it becomes our privilege, and\nperhaps our duty, to question its mission and its right to live.\nShould it appear that secular education is the object mainly\naimed at, then we would say it has just as much right to live as\nthere is reason for the work it is doing. But if, on the other\nhand, it should appear that the regeneration of men, and the\nfounding of pure and intelligent churches, is its central thought\nand aim, and that all other instruments in its hands are but\ntributary to this, then we would say it has just as much right to\nlive as there is force and authority in the last command of our\nascended Lord. This will become evident if we examine:\n\n(1.) The _Commission_ under which a society like this does its\nwork. The warrant for a missionary society, as for all missionary\neffort, is found in the words of our Saviour to his disciples,\njust before he went up on high: \u201cAll power is given unto me in\nheaven and on earth; go ye, therefore, and teach all nations,\nbaptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of\nthe Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever\nI have commanded you, and lo, I am with you alway, even unto\nthe end of the world.\u201d Analyze these words, as repeated by\nthree evangelists, and, we submit, they leave upon the mind the\nsingle, distinct impression that the work he commissioned his\ndisciples to do was to teach or to preach Christ; was to call\nto repentance, and show how sin could be atoned and remitted\nthrough the blood of the Crucified. That message is given to\nthis society\u2014the most important ever committed to men; and\nto proclaim it freely and fully, all its resources of men and\nof money, of learning and of influence, should be put under\ncontribution. This is the work than which nothing greater nor\ngrander can be conceived.\n\n(2.) This will further appear if we study the _model_ of\nmissionary work, which is presented to us in apostolic labor and\nexample. If the _words_ of our Saviour define the work to be\ndone, the example of the Apostles defines and illustrates the\n_manner_ in which it should be done. And beginning at Jerusalem,\nwe find that the Apostles and the company of the believers gave\nthemselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. When\nthe endowment of power had come, they began to speak in other\ntongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. They were now divinely\nempowered and set apart for their work. The Holy Ghost is now\ntheir inspirer and guide, and when the multitude came running\ntogether to see what this strange thing could mean, Peter, with\nthe eleven, stood up and delivered that searching discourse which\nwent with convincing and converting power to the hearts of 3,000\nmen.\n\nIndeed, what is the Acts of the Apostles but a record of\nmissionary operations conducted by inspired men, who were\nspecially empowered and guided by the Holy Ghost, in which the\npreaching of Christ was the all-absorbing theme? Peter and James\namong the Apostles, and Philip and Stephen among the deacons,\nwere illustrious preachers in their day, and models of devotion\nto the single purpose of winning men to Christ. Converts were\nmultiplied, churches organized, and believers made to feel that\nthe _one supreme_ work was to teach or to preach Christ. The\nmovement began on the day of Pentecost by preaching Christ, and\non that line it continued its triumphant way while the Apostles\nlived. They neither sought nor asked for anything more. They were\ncontent to wield the sword of the Spirit which is the word of\nGod. And so they preached Christ, \u201cto the Jews a stumbling-block\nand to the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which were saved,\nChrist the power of God and the wisdom of God.\u201d\n\n(3.) If we needed other evidence that this line of work is\nthe true one, we have it in the historical _examples of other\nsuccessful missionary work_ since the time of the Apostles.\nWe only need to examine those great religious movements in\nhistory which not only lifted the Church, but started the human\nrace forward on higher courses of thought and life, to satisfy\nourselves that the Gospel was the quickening power, and furnished\nthe motive and impulse to the astonishing results which followed.\nA single text ringing in the ear of the monk as he slowly and\nwearily climbed Pilate\u2019s stairs at Rome, on his knees, \u201cThe\njust shall live by faith,\u201d explains the Reformation. That was\nthe key-note to all the preaching and writing of Luther and the\nReformers. That truth lifted and saved men; that truth organized\nthe free thought and the Protestant churches of Germany, and made\nthe Reformation a success.\n\nThe Puritan movement in England, to some extent contemporaneous\nwith that in Germany, proceeded on the same principles. Men\nmighty in the Scriptures were raised up to preach the word. They\nrelied on nothing but the simple Gospel of Christ. All the might\nof king and council and Parliament could not crush a movement\nhaving its sources in the word of God. It crystallized into\ndissenting churches; it flowed beyond the British Islands on to\nthe continent of Europe and to the continent of America, taking\npossession of a new empire and a new world.\n\nThe Methodist movement, under Whitefield and the Wesleys, was\nstill another uprising and following of the human mind after the\nsimple truths of the Gospel. Though educated men themselves,\nthey had almost a contempt for human learning and the wordly\nappliances on which other churches so much relied. The preaching\nof the word accompanied by the power of the Holy Ghost was their\n_sole_ reliance. On that principle they organized their churches,\nliterally preaching the Gospel to the poor, and, at the end of a\ncentury, had a membership outnumbering any Protestant church in\nChristendom. It would be easy to show that modern missions, at\nhome and abroad, have been most successful as they have relied\nmost fully on the simple preaching of the word, and that the\nbuilding up of churches has been the saving power of communities\n_intellectually_, _morally_ and even _materially_.\n\n(4.) Applying now the facts and principles barely glanced at\nin this review to the subject in hand, we shall find that, so\nfar as the South is concerned, pure and intelligent churches\nare at this moment more a necessity even than schools are. The\neducation of the intellect is vitally important; but for its own\nsecurity it should rest on the broader education of the moral\nnature. The former will make keen, sharp men, shrewd in business\nand other transactions, but only the latter can be trusted to\nmake honest, faithful, conscientious men. While we insist that\n_Christian schools_ are the true handmaid of religion, we must\nnot be tempted to substitute science and culture for piety, nor\nto make schools stand for more than churches. The church alone\nis fundamental, but for the best results they belong together\nand should go together. Schools _can_ be made and _should_ be\nmade helps to religion; but we mistake their nature entirely\nwhen we imagine that there is anything in the ordinary studies\nof the class-room\u2014the classics, the mathematics, or the natural\nsciences\u2014to sanctify the heart or subdue the will to God.\nThe colored race is vastly more run down on its moral side\nthan on its intellectual side. This is true of all degraded,\nbarbarous races. The direct effects of slavery on the colored\nrace were its moral effects. To be sure, it left the race poor\nand uncultivated; but _that_ might have been borne and easily\nrepaired had it left the moral integrity of the race intact and\npure. The school of slavery perverted the moral nature, and until\n_that_ is rectified, no process of intellectual education can\nlift the race on to the high level of a true manhood and a great\nfuture.\n\nMen and nations are lifted and made truly great through their\nmoral qualities rather than through their intellectual. At any\nrate, if history teaches any lesson it is, that no nation has\nlong exhibited great intellectual qualities which has not been\nsustained by greater moral qualities; and that no nation, ancient\nor modern, has become intellectually great that was not first\nmorally great. The age of Pericles in Greece, and the Augustinian\nage in Rome, when the human mind in each of those countries\nreached its climacteric, was preceded by those great moral\nvirtues among the people which made them severely simple, honest,\nbrave and true. Greece had her Homer, her Solon, her \u00c6schylus,\nher Euripides, her Sappho, before she had her Pericles. Rome had\nher Romulus, her Numa, her Cato, her Scipios, and for mothers,\nher Cornelia, her Marcia and her Portia, before she had her\nAugustus. England had her Alfred, her Bede, her Wickliffe, her\nKnox and her Reformers, before she had her Bacon, her Shakespeare\nand her Milton. Germany had her Luther, her Melanethon, her\nCalvin, her Zwingle, and her long line of Protestant confessors\nand defenders, before she had her Goethe, her Schiller, her\nHumboldt, her Herder and her Beethoven. The ancient nations,\nwhose masterpieces in literature and art are still the models on\nwhich we form our taste, declined intellectually precisely as\nthey declined morally. The great age of English literature was a\ngreater age of moral heroism; and Germany\u2019s highest intellectual\ndevelopment is but the consummate flowering of the moral forces\nwhich have come down from the Reformation. Both will decline as\nthe moral supports on which they rest are weakened or undermined.\n\nIn the light of the past, it would seem clear that if we merely\nsought the highest intellectual development of the colored race,\nwe would educate most assiduously their moral nature\u2014their\nweakest and most neglected part. But this can be done effectually\nonly through a pure and intelligent ministry of the word. In pure\nchurches alone can moral instruction, based on Divine authority,\nfind its highest sanctions. The secular teacher, indeed, may\ninstruct in morals and religion, but his words do not carry the\nsanctity nor the authority of him who ministers at God\u2019s altar in\nholy things. It is in the Church, where men speak in the name of\nGod, and where the soul is brought face to face with the claims\nof God, that the highest moral motives are pressed and felt. And\nhence we say, the Church _foremost_, and everything tributary to\nthe Church, because the Church deals supremely with the moral\nnature, through which degraded races can alone be lifted.\n\n(5.) There is a farther necessity for such churches, in order\nthat we may save the present and coming generation of educated\nyoung colored men and women from skepticism and infidelity.\nThe moment we educate a young man or a young woman to read\nintelligently, or to speak and write the English language\ngrammatically, we have educated them out of the old colored\nchurches. They will not listen to men whose vocabulary has more\nsound than meaning, and who violate with every sentence every law\nof correct speech. The white churches are not open to them in any\nsuch sense that they feel at liberty to enter them on any footing\nof Christian equality. Unless we provide for them something which\nis more pure and rational than their own churches, free from the\nclamors and excitements of mere animal passion, we send them into\nthe streets and away from the house of God. After a young man\nor a young woman has remained in school long enough to see the\nignorance of the colored preachers, and has gained sufficient\nintelligence to make moral distinctions, it is inevitable that he\nshould turn from such teachers, and revolt from such moral and\nreligious guides.\n\nIf they are compelled to judge religion only by the specimens\nof it which they see around them, why should not a common\nintelligence reject it altogether? Our education, therefore, must\neither lead our students out of the old churches into infidelity,\nor it must lead them into churches where an intelligent ministry\nand a pure worship will satisfy both intellect and heart. I can\nconceive no greater wrong we can do that race than to destroy\ntheir faith in the religion taught and practiced in their\nchurches, if we do not supply them with a better. A race without\na religious faith is lost; and, while our education destroys the\nold, let us be careful to put in the place of it the _new_ and\nthe _true_.\n\n(6.) And, finally, pure and intelligent churches are a necessity\nin order to create a reservoir of piety and ability sufficient to\nnurture and bring forward the young men and women needed for the\nwork of redeeming Africa. If the colored race in this country is\never to be broadened to the full conception of saving Africa\u2014is\never to be made capable of laying broad and deep the foundations\nof Christian States on that dark continent\u2014if it is ever to be\ninspired to the effort of such an undertaking\u2014the movement must\nbegin at the foundations of character, in the moral sensibilities\nand convictions of the soul. And a movement that is wide enough\nand strong enough to sustain such an attempt must begin at the\nhouse of God, must have its roots in Christian homes, must be fed\nin the closet, at the family altar, with the word of God and the\nbreath of prayer. The movement which saves Africa will be a race\nmovement; will be the light and pressure of Divine truth upon the\nminds and consciences of the people, and a baptism of Pentecostal\nfire consecrating them to the work. But to what agencies shall\nwe look for such mighty spiritual energies as are needed for\nthe recovery of a race to Jesus Christ? The Church is the vast\nreservoir of spiritual forces, and she utilizes other instruments\nas they are needed to accomplish her work. But if it should\nhappen that we should mistake instruments or methods for power,\neven schools for the Church of the living God, we should soon\nfind that the body without the spirit is dead.\n\nIt would avail little if here and there one in our schools might\nbe persuaded to enter the African field. What could he do without\nthe prayers, the sympathies, as well as the moral and pecuniary\nsupport of his race behind him? And what certainly would there be\nof a supply or of a succession of laborers, unless the churches\nwere holding their members to the work and were pushing forward\ntheir children to offer themselves in its behalf? The churches\nalone can create a race sentiment broad and deep and potent\nenough to bear up an enterprise aiming at the Christianization\nof Africa. It is the Gospel, ministered by holy men, which\nunifies and exalts communities. It is the Church, as the centre\nand representative of divine power, which stands for God, and\nthe word and the ordinances entrusted to her keeping are his\nonly visible hold upon the world. If we would have Christian\nscholars in training for Africa\u2014as teachers, as preachers, or\nas statesmen\u2014they should come from homes and churches in which\nthe spirit of Christ, the spirit of humanity, and the spirit of\nmissions was as the breath of life. On the one hand, we want the\nchurches as the inspiring and sustaining power both for men and\nmoney, and on the other, as the motive and model for the work\nwe are called to do. Our missionaries need to live and move in\nan atmosphere of holy self-denial and charity, to be empowered\nby the prayers and godly zeal of the great brotherhood of the\nsaints, in order to a full consecration. We can expect men and\nmoney for the work in sufficient number and amount only as the\nchurches, like mighty reservoirs, gather and hold all their\nforces of brain, of heart, of will, of wealth and of learning, of\npiety and of power, for Christ.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAFRICA.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nREPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.\n\nThe report on the Association\u2019s work in Africa, submitted\nto your committee, shows that the Mendi Mission has reached\nonce more a degree of prosperity and promise. In its church,\nschool and industrial work it has been prospered, and in the\nplan of preparing and using native helpers do we find the\ngreat principle of all successful schemes for disseminating\nthe Gospel wisely adopted. Furthermore, the signal fact seems\nnow already permanently established that the Freedmen are the\nprovidential missionaries for the dark continent. They endure\nthe climate as Europeans cannot, and, as trained for their work\nin the seminaries of this society, they evince a capacity which\nfits them for a rare evangelical service in the land of their\nancestors.\n\nBut the matter to which it is especially fitting that your\nattention be directed with unwonted seriousness is the conditional\ndecision recently arrived at by the Executive Committee of this\nAssociation to accept Mr. Arlington\u2019s offer of \u00a33,000, and open\nin Eastern Africa a new mission station. That indicates what all\ninterested in the great problem of Africa\u2019s Christianization\nshould welcome with thanksgiving and prayer, viz., that this\nAssociation is to take a new and advanced part in this latest\nmissionary crusade. Now its work will have a higher significance\nand a wider reach; for under God does it more and more seem that to\nthis Association is to fall the high part of preparing the needed\nmissionaries for Africa. The relation of the educational work of\nthe Association to this grand enterprise becomes impressively\napparent. There is a compensation in God\u2019s providence, and in this\ninstance it is inspiring to believe that our Freedmen, as the best\nfitted agents, are to become the preachers of Christianity to\nthe land from which their ancestors were cruelly carried away as\nslaves. Here, now, is something proposed which will tax our faith\nand test our courage and consecration.\n\nThe field for the proposed mission seems to be wisely chosen, and\nin the Nile basin, making one more in a chain of mission stations\nrecently opened, will this Association have its place and do its\nshare in redeeming the continent to which the entire church now\nis turning with a yearning heart. It is somewhat significant\nthat the proposed field for this mission is in a portion of\nthe continent most desolated by the slave trade. Pre-eminently\nappropriate is it that this society, so long the friend and\nadvocate of the slave, should carry the tidings of \u201cthe liberty\nwherewith Christ makes men free\u201d into the midst of tribes which\nhave suffered from this terrible traffic.\n\nThe full and studied report of the Foreign Committee, in the\nApril number of the AMERICAN MISSIONARY, on the character and\npromise of the special field designated by Mr. Arthington, makes\nit unnecessary for your committee to add anything touching\nupon this point. The careful investigation made in the first\ninstance confirms the wisdom of Mr. Arthington in naming to\nthis Association the field he has. His own letter, published\nin the March number, shows that he had conferred with the best\nauthorities as to the location of the mission, and that he has\nchosen a district that offers unusual attractions for such a\nstation as this Association should establish.\n\nWe believe your committee but voice the feeling of all\nfriends of this Association when expressing the hope that the\nconditions on which this missionary advance depends will be\npromptly met, so that without delay measures can be adopted\nto enter this open door, and improve this latest and greatest\nopportunity of doing for the millions of the long-forgotten and\nlong-despised continent. It is very evident that the foreign\nwork of the Association is to become of increasing importance\nand magnitude, for to it has providentially fallen the high\nprivilege of preparing the workers especially required in\nAfrican evangelization. With its old mission on the West Coast\nrising now into fresh usefulness, on its new basis of depending\nupon Freedmen missionaries and native helpers, and the projected\nstation south and west of Gondokoro, in a field full of promise,\nit will become a great evangelistic power in Africa. The springs\nand feeders of its work will be in those noble educational\ninstitutions established in our Southern land, for from these\nwill go forth the colored men and women who will show of what\nholy sacrifice and achievements they are capable.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe should not forget that to this Association belongs the honor\nof inaugurating in this country the more recent phase of African\nevangelization. At the annual meeting in Clinton, Iowa, in 1874,\nwas the first note sounded for a missionary advance into the\nheart of the dark continent, and in the annual gathering of\n1875 and every year since has it been a prominent subject for\nconsideration. Mr. Arthington was induced to make his offer to\nthe Association because of its early and pronounced sympathy with\nthis plan of interior missions in Africa, and we, of our own\nbelief, would be disloyal to the flag we first gave to the winds\nof heaven if we did not gird ourselves for this new venture. This\nAssociation cannot afford to be absent from the Christian forces\nnow entering the far land, for by Providence and the signal\nhistory of past years, and its peculiar relation to the African\nrace, it is called to take its place, highest of all, in the\nlustrous belt of missions that now extend from the Zambesi along\nthe chain of lakes to the region in the Nile basin which we are\nto man under the name of the Arthington Mission.\n\n                                                  M. M. G. DANA,\n                                                  H. T. ROSE,\n                                                  G. D. PIKE,\n                                                  S. J. HUMPHREY.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE MENDI COUNTRY AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD.\n\nBY REV. G. D. PIKE.\n\nThe territory under view is bounded on the east by the River\nNiger, on the north by the Great Desert, and on the west and\nsouth by the Atlantic Ocean.\n\n(1.) Its surface is varied by mountains, plains, forest and\nrivers, while its coast is indented with bays and harbors of\ngrand proportions. Skirting the coast there is an alluvial region\nextending for fifty miles to a mountain forest range eighty\nmiles in width; then follows an open plateau which extends to\nthe Niger and beyond. The soil of this plateau is described as a\nrich prairie land, of such productiveness and beauty that it is\nregarded by missionaries who have seen it as the garden spot of\nthe world.\n\n(2.) The climate of the country is admitted on all hands to be\nhostile to efforts for the advancement of its people, while the\ncoast has been fitly styled \u201cthe burial-ground of white men.\u201d\nA deadly malaria, poisonous both to man and domestic animals,\nchecks the progress of industries and the work of Christianity.\nIt is believed, however, that this malaria is more especially\nconfined to the low mangrove swamps of the coast, and that after\nthe forest belt is passed the open plateau will afford healthy\nlocalities.\n\nThe sanitary condition of a country can be determined in a\nmeasure by its domestic animals. The pestilential vapors of a\nmalarious region are said to be absorbed to a greater extent by\nquadrupeds, living constantly in the open air, than by mankind,\nliving a portion of the time in-doors. The ancient Greeks\nobserved this fact, and incorporated it in verse centuries ago:\n\n    \u201cOn mules and dogs the infection first began,\n     And last, the vengeful arrow fixed in man.\u201d\n\nNow the open plateau we have mentioned may be called the\n\u201ccattle-belt of the Mendi country and its neighborhood.\u201d Here\nunnumbered herds of horses, cows and other domestic animals\nabound, making it somewhat evident that the climate may be found\nfavorable for the development of an advanced civilization.\n\n(3.) The products of this country are such as are common to the\ntropics, and are very abundant. Coffee grows spontaneously.\nIndia-rubber enough for generations could be easily obtained.\nVast areas of timber lands, characterized by trees thirty feet\nin diameter, with spreading branches sufficient for the shelter\nof a regiment, abound in the forest belt. Here are found great\nvarieties of dye-woods, and other woods that admit of a beautiful\nfinish. Lumber is in great demand, and the saw-mill belonging\nto this Association is taxed to its utmost, and quite unable to\nfurnish a supply sufficient for the market near at hand. The\nexport of palm-oil from this locality is very great, and at\npresent is doubtless the leading article of merchandise.\n\nIt is quite possible, however, that within a generation the most\nalluring wealth of the country will be its treasures of gold.\nThis precious metal is found in a belt extending from the Gold\nCoast inland three hundred and fifty miles. Of the productiveness\nof the gold mines or pits, as they are called, we can judge but\nlittle otherwise than by the meagreness of the facilities of the\nnatives for collecting gold, and by the amount found among the\ndifferent tribes. From what can be learned I am led to believe\nthat the great enterprise that shall yet stir the thought of the\nmercantile world in behalf of this region will be that of the\ngold hunter. In support of this view we have facts before us like\nthe following: The king of the Ashantees is covered with golden\nornaments. He is served by his cook with a golden spoon. His\nspies, to the number of a thousand, wear golden breastplates,\nhis officers carry gold-hilted swords, and his subjects use gold\ndust for money. The chiefs of the land manufacture golden images\nto display their wealth, while their attendants are embellished\nwith golden badges. Even on the great plateau, three hundred\nmiles inland, gold is the money of the country. In Bour\u00e9 the\npeople do nothing but dig up gold, which they exchange for food\nwith the neighboring tribes. The indications certainly are,\nthat if so much gold is secured by native women, who wash out a\nlittle surface sand in their simple gourds, mines of wealth must\nlie beneath awaiting the more powerful machinery of an American\ncivilization.\n\n(4.) We come now to notice the internal improvements projected for\nopening up this country to commerce and the higher development of\nits people. Lines of steamers ply from the Senegal to the Niger,\nand ports are opened where trade is carried on equal in amount\nto $20,000,000 annually. The Niger and its tributaries afford\nnavigable waters for 3,500 miles, enabling the merchant to proceed\nwith boats from Timbuctoo to the Atlantic. Steamers already ply\nupon this river and inland trade is rapidly developing.\n\nAt present there are many obstacles to overcome, of which the\nsuperstition of the natives is not the least. There is, however,\na project full of promise for reaching this country. By recent\nsurveys it has been ascertained that opposite the Canary Islands,\nin latitude 28\u00b0 north, running five hundred miles south-east in\nthe Great Desert, there is a sink two hundred feet below the\nlevel of the Atlantic, extending to within one hundred miles\nof Timbuctoo, the great city of Central Africa. This sink or\ndepression has a width of one hundred and twenty miles, and\ncontains sixty thousand square miles of land. Explorers agree\nthat a channel once connected its north-western extremity\nwith the Atlantic, where it terminated in a sand-bank, which\nprevented the waters of the ocean from flowing into its bed. Its\nmouth is formed between perpendicular rocks, and measures about\ntwo and a half miles in width, and is blocked by a sand-bar,\nthree hundred yards across, with a height of thirty feet above\nthe sea. All that is needed is to excavate a ship canal three\nhundred yards long through the sand-bar, and the inland sea will\nbe speedily formed. When this is accomplished the Mendi country\nand its neighborhood will be a vast island, approachable from\nmany directions, and a belt of civilization will be closed in\nuntil the whole area is blessed with peace and abundance. Then\n\u201cAfric\u2019s sunny fountains\u201d will \u201croll down their golden sands\u201d\ninto the lap of the older civilizations, and receive in return\nthe riper and richer results of the heaven-born blessings of the\nGospel.\n\n(5.) It is fitting, furthermore, that we consider the character\nand condition of the people of this domain. As to their physical\nproportions, we have reason to believe that back of the malarial\nbelt they are well formed, muscular and endowed with powers\nof great endurance. The tribes of the interior drive down the\ninhabitants of the forest range into the lowland, where the law\nof the survival of the unfittest obtains on account of malaria\nleaving alive the coarse, muscular men of the coast. Of the\nmental capacity of these people a good illustration was seen\nin Barnabas Root, a real heathen, who came to this country and\nwas graduated at a Western college and also at the Chicago\nTheological Seminary, ranking among the best scholars of his\nclass at both institutions.\n\nThe capacity of this people is also indicated by some splendid\nachievements on African soil. A native among the Vey people\ninvented an alphabet with two hundred characters, in which\ncommunications could be sent by letter and the language preserved\nin books. Still another contrived an instrument before the\ninvention of the telegraph, called an _eleimbic_, for conveying\nsound, and by means of which messages could be sent for several\nmiles. Native women manufacture cloth, woven in different colors;\nthey also make a species of twine as delicate and useful as\nany in the world. Clay vessels that hold water, iron axes and\nimplements of utility of native manufacture, also abound.\n\nTimbuctoo, the queen city of the Desert, at the north-eastern\nboundary of the country we are considering, contains 20,000\ninhabitants, and is laid out with regular streets and well-built\nhouses. Here is found a great mosque with nine naves and a tower\n286 feet high and 212 wide, while other mosques of great age\nand importance greet the eyes in this wonderful city. These\nindications of skill are found among native Africans, even if\ndue, especially in Timbuctoo, to the Mohammedan faith. Cities and\ntowns in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and further along the coast, are\nthe result in part of a foreign civilization, but still in some\nmeasure attest the capacity of the real heathen.\n\nThese people not only evince capacity for the development\nof material wealth, but for the science of government. They\nevidently believe in experiments in governmental civilization.\nFor example, the king of Dahomey selects the most robust of his\nwives for a body-guard and organizes regiments of amazons. These\nare said to be most courageous soldiers and absolutely devoted\nto their calling. He also displays his appreciation of object\nlessons in temperance reform by keeping a drunkard on rum, that\nhis hideous aspect might deter the people from that vice; while\nthe boys who act as porters on the coast promote the observance\nof Sunday laws by charging for their services on the Lord\u2019s day\nsixpence extra for breaking the Sabbath.\n\nThe question, however, with which we have chief concern relates\nto the religious instincts or capabilities of these people.\nThese may be measured in some degree by the sacrifices they make\nand by the notions they entertain. For example, among the Foula\ntribe the offerings to the Fetish must be made by a \u201csinless\ngirl.\u201d Among the Mendi, they believe in a supreme being who made\nall things, who punishes those who wrong their friends; they\nthank him for blessings, and blame him for trouble and sickness.\nThe fetishism of the African is based upon religious instincts,\nand indicates the strength of his aptitude for faith, prayer and\nself-denial.\n\nWe have not at command any comprehensive knowledge of the habits\nof all the tribes of the Mendi country and its neighborhood.\nWe are able, however, to give some account of the unprejudiced\nconduct of the Ashantees during a four years\u2019 war, as observed\nby two German missionaries held as prisoners at Coomassie for\nthat length of time. They narrate a condition of heathendom that\nought to inspire us to pray and labor for the enlightenment and\nredemption of this wretched people.\n\nThe worst phase of their condition is exhibited in the practice\nof offering human sacrifices. We are told that when the king\nvisits the burial-place of his ancestors he offers a human\nsacrifice on approaching the skeleton of each one, and in this\nmanner some thirty persons are slaughtered. When about to repair\na roof at the burial-place after a storm, as many more victims\nare offered to appease the wrath of the departed. On funeral\noccasions many villagers are killed, till it pleases the king to\nforbid the further shedding of blood. The arms of poor wretches\nare cut off in midday, while they are compelled to dance for the\namusement of the king before being taken to execution. If the\nvictims will not dance, lighted torches are applied to their\nwounds until the drums beat, and then their heads are taken off.\n\nDuring the Ashantee war 136 chiefs were slain. According to the\nbelief of the people it was necessary to send a considerable\nretinue after them to the other world. For this reason a\nceremony called a \u201cdeath-wake\u201d was instituted, at which, for\neach Coomassie chief, 30 of their people were killed. If an\nequal retinue was assigned for chiefs in other localities, the\nslaughtered persons would number 4,080 souls. At the funeral\nfestivities of Kokofu more than 200 human beings were sacrificed,\nthe king beheading several with his own hand. On the death of\na prince many of his wives are slain, and if the number he\npossessed is not deemed sufficient, the king adds a selection\nof girls, who are painted white and hung with golden ornaments.\nThese sit about the coffin for days, but are finally doomed\nto the grave as attendants for the departed. The apology for\nsuch practices is given by the king of Dahomey in the following\nlanguage: \u201cIf I were to give up this custom at once, my head\nwould be taken off to-morrow. These things cannot be stopped,\nas one might suppose. By and by, little by little, much may be\ndone. Softly, softly; not by threats. You see how I am placed.\u201d\nA missionary of much experience on the coast tells us: \u201cThe\npractice of offering human sacrifices is founded on a purely\nreligious basis, designed as a manifestation of piety, sanctioned\nby long usages, upheld by a powerful priesthood, and believed to\nbe essential to the very existence of the tribes where it exists.\u201d\n\nBut, thank God, over these dark areas of Pagan land we believe\nthe \u201cmorning light is breaking.\u201d Already about the Mendi country\nand its neighborhood there are twenty-three central mission\nstations, many, if not all of which are circled with tributary\n\u201cout-stations,\u201d lighting the country like a galaxy of planets and\nstars and suns. Here different religious societies have organized\nmore than one hundred churches, and one hundred times as many\nconverts, and gathered 20,000 children in its schools. To this it\nmust be added that nearly a score of dialects have been mastered,\nand portions of the Scriptures printed in as many tongues; while\nmillions of real heathen have felt the blessed influence of the\nGospel. As you will see by the map, there is a belt of missions\nfrom the Senegal on the north along the coast to the mouth of\nthe Niger, and up the Niger the native black Bishop Crowther has\nlocated nine mission stations, manned by converted heathen, who\nare pushing northward toward Timbuctoo, with their steamers and\nother facilities for extending the work.\n\nWe, of the American Missionary Association, are in the heart\nof this great domain. The Mendi tribe is supposed to occupy a\nregion hundreds of miles inland, and to number two millions of\nsouls. The work of our missionaries on that ground is fruitful\nof suggestions and encouragement. The faith and aspirations of\nall, I believe, was expressed by Mr. Anthony, a colored hero from\nBerea, Ky., in his letter to New York: \u201cIf you had the money I\nwould say, send 100,000 missionaries to Africa at once.\u201d The\nFreedmen are rapidly fitting themselves to go up and possess this\nland for Christ. Give us the money and we will send them forward.\n\nAt some of the fashionable watering-places by the shores of the\nsea, during the past summer, you noticed chains of electric\nlights illuminating the fairy-like towers and palaces and\nabodes of ten thousand pleasure-seekers, who, amid music and\ngayety and song, sported in the tide as it broke in billowy\ngrandeur on the snowy sands; darkness was changed to day, and\nnight abolished by the wonderful discovery of Mr. Edison. So, I\nthink, our missionary stations in Western Africa are electric\nlights, dispelling the darkness and ushering in that light which\nis the truth and the way. Mr. Edison maintains his luminaries\nby batteries with positive and negative poles, two extremes\noperating one over against the other. Not otherwise is it with\nthe lights of the missionary world. They must be supported by the\ngreat batteries of prayer and sacrifice. Praying and giving must\nbe our watchword. Pray the Lord of the harvest that He send forth\nthe laborer into His harvest, and remember the words of the Lord\nJesus, how He said, \u201cIt is more blessed to give than to receive.\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE INDIANS.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nREPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.\n\nYour committee, to whom has been referred that part of the report\nof the Executive Committee which concerns the American Indians,\nbeg leave to report as follows:\n\nAnother event has occurred, in what may surely be termed the\nprovidence of God, to compel the attention of Christians to the\ncondition of the Indians, and to our methods of dealing with them.\n\nWhatever may be said of the policy of the Government, the fact\nis that the paroxysm into which the country is thrown at each\nnew Indian outbreak, the perplexed uncertainty which is then\nmanifested by our chief public officers, the conflict of orders\nwhich issue from the different departments of the Government, the\npassionate demands which are then made for radical changes in our\npolicy, and the general hopelessness of permanent improvement\nin the condition of the Indian which that wide-spread demand\nindicates\u2014these conspire to prove that, if not a fundamental\nchange, at least a more intelligent aim is necessary in our\nmethod of dealing with these, the most perplexing of our national\nwards.\n\nIn the hope of furnishing a basis of discussion, and of guiding\nthe efforts of the Association in the new problems which are\narising, your committee venture to embody their suggestions\nin the form of a series of resolutions, which we present for\nadoption, if your wisdom approves them.\n\n_Resolved_, That the aim of this Association shall be, as far as\npossible and as rapidly as possible, to secure for the Indians\u2014\n\n1. A legalized standing in the Courts of the United States.\n\n2. Ownership of land in severalty.\n\n3. The full rights of American citizenship.\n\nThese three things, we believe, are essential if the Indian is to\nbe, not Christianized or civilized, but saved from extermination.\n\n_Resolved_, That this Association most heartily indorses the plan\nof the Indian Bureau to secure to as many Indians as possible\nthe advantages of education offered at such distant schools\nas those at Hampton and Carlisle; at the same time we believe\nthat the system of boarding schools on the reservations, which\nfor many years have been maintained by the Government and the\nmissionaries, is the chief educational agency that must be relied\nupon for bettering the condition of the Indian.\n\n_Resolved_, That to this end the members of this Association will\ndo all in their power to make the Indian question a pressing\nquestion until the attention of Congress is so secured and held\nto it that the legislative enactment necessary to bring about\nthese changes be completely accomplished.\n\n                                                  H. A. STIMSON,\n                                                  A. F. SHERRILL,\n                                                  S. R. RIGGS\n                                                  WM. CRAWFORD,\n                                                  M. B. WILDER,\n                                                  JOSEPH HART,\n                                                  E. P. SMITH.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE INDIAN QUESTION.\n\nREV. H. A. STIMSON, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.\n\nI stand before you to speak upon the Indian question with an\ninexpressible sadness. The hopelessness of securing justice or\nmercy for the Indian oppresses me. I seem to hear the cry of the\nPilgrim\u2019s saintly pastor, when the news came to him across the\nocean of their first fight with the natives of New England, \u201cI\nwould that you had converted some before you killed any.\u201d Our\ninjustice and oppression of the Indian are not the slow growth of\nyears, as they have been to-day shown to be in the case of the\nnegro; they sprang into being full armed, bitter and destructive,\nlike the spirits from Pandora\u2019s box. As early as 1675 the devoted\nJohn Eliot wrote to Gov. Winthrop from the wigwams in which he\nwas consecrating his culture and his life to their conversion:\n\u201cI humbly request that one effect of this trouble may be to\nhumble the English to do the Indians justice.\u201d (Letter to Hon.\nMr. Winthrop, Governor of Connecticut. Roxbury, this 24th of the\nfifth month, 1675.) The prayer has remained unanswered through\nthe centuries.\n\nI am oppressed with the necessity of arraigning my Government and\nmy country of crime. It is but a short time since England was\nhorrified with the account of the barbarous atrocities committed\nby an English governor upon the blacks of Jamaica. A committee\nwas at once formed, as an expression of the best sentiment of\nEngland, for the purpose of bringing the perpetrators of the\ncrime to justice. Reviewing the work of the Jamaica committee, of\nwhich he had been chairman, John Stuart Mill records its failure.\nIt was defeated not by the law, but by the grand jury, the\nrepresentatives of the people. \u201cIt was not a popular proceeding,\u201d\nhe writes, \u201cin the eyes of the great middle classes of England to\nbring English functionaries to the bar of a criminal court for\nabuses of power committed against negroes.\u201d (Autobiography, pp.\n296-9.) It is as unpopular to arraign our Government for abuse\nof the Indian to-day. A single sentence, however, of Mr. Mill\u2019s\ngives me courage to proceed. He says: \u201cThe Lord Chief Justice\nCockburn\u2019s charge settled the law for the future.\u201d It may be that\nsome simple statements of fact may open the eyes of our people\nand prepare the way for redress.\n\nEarly in the century Sidney Smith said of the English nation, in\nreference to the possibility of converting the Hindoos to Christ:\n\u201cWe have exemplified in our public conduct every crime of which\nhuman nature is capable.\u201d Those words stand to-day the terms of\nthe indictment of the United States in her dealings with the\nIndians.\n\nWe have persistently _broken faith with them_. A volume of\ntestimony might readily be produced; but Gen. Leake\u2019s able\nsetting forth of the history of our Indian treaties furnishes\nall the proof necessary. But as a single illustration, take\nthis statement from a Government official. In seven of our most\nimportant treaties with as many different tribes we have bound\nourselves to provide education for the children of those tribes.\nAt a low estimate there are 33,000 children of schoolable age.\nThe Government has provided accommodations for but 2,589. Add\n5,082 as the number who may possibly be further accommodated\nin the miserable makeshifts of transient day schools, and you\nhave but 7,671 as the total provision. (Letter of Acting Indian\nCommissioner Brooks, April 28, 1879.)\n\nBut why begin this story? We have made the name Modoc one to\nfrighten children with for a generation; but the Modoc chief who\nkilled the brave Gen. Canby had first been himself betrayed, and\nhad his kindred killed under a U.S. flag of truce; and his women\nhad been violated and burned to death. (Bishop Whipple\u2019s letter\nto _N. Y. Evening Post_, Jan., 1879.) We fought the Nez Perces;\nand when that able and manly chief Joseph surrendered, he did it\non conditions the flagrant violation of which on the part of our\nGovernment is known to every Indian on the plains. (Mr. Tibball\u2019s\nletter of October 9, 1879, in _N. Y. Tribune_.) We have justified\nthe sneers with which Sitting Bull dismissed Assistant Secretary\nCowan in a council held before the outbreak of the last Sioux\nwar: \u201cReturn to your own land, and when you have found a white\nman who does not lie, come back.\u201d We furnished occasion for the\nsorrowful words of the old chief who, after the Custer massacre,\ncame to the Whipple Commission on the Missouri and said: \u201cLook\nout there. The prairie is wet with the blood of the white man. I\nhear the voices of beautiful women crying for their husbands, who\nwill never return. It is not an Indian war. It is a white man\u2019s\nwar, for the white man has lied. Take this pipe to the great\nFather and tell him to smoke it, for it is the pipe of truth.\u201d\n\nWhat a parody is this on our national history! We boast of a\nfather of his country who always told the truth. The Indian\nknows our Government by the name of \u201cWashington,\u201d and the Indian\nsays \u201cWashington always lies.\u201d Gen. Stanley has said: \u201cWhen I\nthink of the way we have broken faith, I am ashamed to look an\nIndian in the face.\u201d Gen. Harney said to the Sioux in 1868: \u201cIf\nmy Government does not keep this agreement, I will come back and\nask the first Indian I meet to shoot me.\u201d (Bishop Whipple in\n_Faribault Democrat_, Jan. 5, 1877.) Gen. Harney does not revisit\nthe Sioux.\n\nWe have _stolen_ from the Indians; we are stealing from them all\nthe time. I do not speak of the lordly robbery, in which the\nstrong possesses himself of the lands, and if occasion serve,\nof the home of the weak, and justifies it by the right of the\nstronger. I speak of the petty stealing of the thief. Three years\nago there came past my home a long procession of Indian ponies.\nWhere did they come from? They were the property of the Sioux\non the reservations west of us. In the face of the ordinance of\n1789, which expressly declares that their lands and property\nshall never be taken, nor their liberties invaded, except in\nlawful wars authorized by Congress, in violation of the terms of\ntheir treaties, and in disregard of the express declaration of\nthe President in response to the telegram of the agent, \u201cTell the\nfriendly Indians that they shall be protected in their persons\nand property,\u201d their ponies were gathered and driven off by\nofficers of the army acting under orders. The Indians were left\nwithout their only means of transportation for fuel or food, and\nno redress has ever been secured. No inventory of individual\npersonal property was kept, and the stolen ponies were scattered\nthrough Minnesota, and what were left sold for a song in St. Paul.\n\nGen. Crook has recently said that the Sioux of the Red Cloud and\nSpotted Tail bands have been robbed during the past winter and\nspring of over a thousand ponies, which robbery the army, under\nthe new _posse comitatus_ act, is powerless to prevent. (Letter\nof June 19, 1879, in _New York Tribune_.)\n\nWhat I am saying must not be understood as an arraignment of\nthe officers of the army, or indeed of the chief officials of\nthe Government. The army officers have been almost without an\nexception the firm friends of the Indian, and none have borne\nmore emphatic testimony to their bad treatment than such generals\nas Sherman, Harney, Stanley, Augur, Howard, Pope and Crook. The\nlatter said the other day, in response to the remark that it\nwas hard to be called to sacrifice life in settling quarrels\nbrought about by thieving contractors, \u201cI will tell you a harder\nthing. It is to be forced to fight and kill Indians when I know\nthey are clearly in the right.\u201d The responsibility is with the\nrepresentatives of the people, with Congress.\n\nBut to return to the indictment. We have _forced the Indians\nto break the law_ by placing them under conditions in which it\nwas not possible for them to obey the law and live. This can be\nproven by the records of many of the Indian reservations when\nwe have attempted to shut them in on lands where starvation was\ninevitable. Of my own knowledge I can speak of a reservation on\nwhich some 1,700 Indians were commanded to remain where there\nwas barely food for a grasshopper, and where in the month of\nSeptember the little children begged the passer for food, and\nthe dogs were the picture of famine. We have debauched their\nwomen. Remember that an Indian has no standing in our courts,\nand it is easy to see what contact with the whites means to him\nand his family. He has no redress when his home is violated;\nand the knowledge of his helplessness makes him the prey of\nevery libertine, until on the distant plains the proximity of\na Government post is a sign of his misery. (General Carrington\nconstrued this remark to apply to army officers, and corrected\nit publicly. That was not its intent. The officers of the army\nare gentlemen. The fort brings into the neighborhood of the\nIndians and offers more or less of shelter to many men of a very\ndifferent stamp.)\n\nWe have not stopped short of _murder_. The record is a long and\nbloody one. The details of the Custer massacre are still fresh\nin your minds. The nation stood still and lifted up its hands in\nhorror at the disaster which in a moment had annihilated every\nman of a large detachment of U.S. troops, not sparing their noble\nand brilliant leader. But where was the real \u201cCuster massacre\u201d?\nGo back to 1868, to where, under the shadow of Fort Cobb, on\nland assigned to them by the United States, stood a small Indian\nvillage. Its chief was Black Kettle, a man whose name was a\nby-word among his fellows for cowardice, because he could not be\ninduced to fight the whites\u2014a man of whom Gen. Harney said, \u201cI\nhave worn the uniform of the United States for fifty-five years;\nI knew Black Kettle well; he was as good a friend of the white\nman as I am.\u201d\n\nHe had been to the commandant of the post seeking protection for\nhimself and his people, because troops were in the neighborhood.\nFour days afterwards Gen. Custer surrounded that village, and\nalthough the Indians fought with desperation, not a man, woman or\nchild escaped alive. Gen. Custer doubtless believed he had fallen\nupon a hostile camp. Was the mistake any the less terrible? Was\nthe butchery any the less shocking? The blood of innocent Indians\non the Wischita cried unto God, and the answer came in the deluge\nof blood on the Rosebud. * * * *\n\nBut you ask, has this been the history of our other Indian wars?\n\nOur first war with the Sioux was in 1852 to 1854. For thirty\nyears it had been the boast of the Sioux that they had never\nkilled a white man. How did the war begin? A Mormon emigrant\ntrain crossing the plains lost a cow, which a band of Sioux, who\nwere living in the neighborhood in perfect peace, found and took.\nThe Mormons discovering this, made complaint at Fort Laramie, and\na lieutenant with a squad of soldiers was sent to recover the\nlost property. It could not be found. It was already assimilated\ninto Indian. But the Indians offered to pay for it. This the\nlieutenant refused to accept, demanding the surrender of the man\nwho had taken the cow for punishment. The Indians said he could\nnot be found; whereupon\u2014will it be believed?\u2014the lieutenant\nordered his troops to fire, and the Indian chief fell dead. Those\ntroops never fired again; they were killed in their tracks; and\nthis was the beginning of the great Sioux war which cost the\nGovernment forty millions of dollars and many lives. (Speech of\nPresident Seeley, of Massachusetts, in Congress, April 13, 1875.)\n\nYou know the story of the Sioux war in Minnesota\u2014the withheld\nappropriations, the taunts and the starvation. We need not open\nthat terrible chapter again.\n\nWe were at it again in 1866. In violation of the most explicit\nagreements we built Forts Phil Kearney, Reno and Smith, in their\ncountry; they flew to arms; the cost to the Government was a\nmillion dollars a month; and finally the forts were vacated.\n\nWe had a great war with the Cheyennes in 1864-5. It began in the\nmost atrocious massacre that disgraces the annals of our country.\nIt was at a time when settlers were pouring into Colorado. The\nbuffalo had become scarce; the annuities for some reason had\nceased; the Indians were sad and depressed. But they kept the\npeace. Black Kettle, of whom I have already spoken, was their\nchief. A white man made complaint to a United States officer that\nan Indian had stolen some of his horses. The officer did not\nknow the man, nor whether or not he had owned any horses; but he\nfitted out an expedition to seize horses. Soon they ran across\nIndians and claimed their stock, though the Indians protested\nthat they had only ponies and no American horses. A fight ensued\nand some Indians were killed. Black Kettle knew his danger. He\nrushed at once to the Governor of Colorado, seeking protection.\nIt was refused. Col. Boone, an old resident of the Territory,\ntold Bishop Whipple that it was the saddest company he had even\nseen when they stopped at his house on their way back. He offered\nthem food, but they said: \u201cOur hearts are sick; we cannot eat.\u201d\n\nSoon after troops appeared upon the horizon. Black Kettle and his\ntwo brothers went out with a white flag to meet them. They fired\non the flag and the two brothers fell dead. Black Kettle returned\nto his camp. Three men in the United States uniform were in his\ntepee. He said; \u201cI believe you are spies; it shall never be said\nthat a man ate Black Kettle\u2019s bread and came to harm in his tent.\nGo to your people before the fight begins.\u201d He gathered his men\nand they fought for their lives. A few escaped; but men, women\nand children were massacred in a butchery too horrible to relate,\nWomen were ripped open and babes were scalped; and the Sand\nCreek massacre has gone upon record, by testimony that cannot be\nimpeached, as a \u201cbutchery that would have disgraced the tribes\nof Central Africa.\u201d (Bishop Whipple\u2019s letter to _Evening Post_,\nJanuary, 1879; and the report of the Doolittle Commission.)\n\nBut we fought the Cheyennes again in 1867. What occasioned that\nwar? Gen. Hancock, \u201cwithout any known provocation,\u201d as says\nthe report to Congress of the Indian Bureau, in July, 1867,\nsurrounded a village of Cheyennes who had been at peace since the\nsigning of the treaty of 1865, and were quietly occupying the\ngrounds assigned to them by the treaty, burned down the homes of\nthree hundred lodges, destroyed all their provisions, clothing,\nutensils and property of every description, to the value of\n$100,000. This led to a war that extended over three years, and\ncost us $40,000,000 and three hundred men. (President Seeley\u2019s\nspeech.)\n\nWe have just fought the Bannocks and Shoshones. In November,\n1878, Gen. Crook wrote to the Government: \u201cWith the Bannocks and\nShoshones our Indian policy has resolved itself into a question\nof war-path or starvation; and being human, many of them will\nchoose the former, in which death shall at least be glorious.\u201d\nIs it necessary to say anything more of that war? Why pursue the\nstory? The late Congressman (now President) Seeley, of Amherst\nCollege, says: \u201cThere has not been an Indian war for the past\nfifty years in which the whites have not been the aggressors.\u201d\n\nWhat, then, is to be done? I press upon you the importance of\nthese resolutions. Standing in the courts, the recognition of the\nIndian as a person with rights, inalienable as yours and mine, to\nlife, to justice, to property, this is the first, the absolute\nessential. As long ago as 1807, Governor (afterwards President)\nHarrison said: \u201cThe utmost efforts to induce the Indians to take\nup arms would be unavailing if _one only of the many persons\nwho have committed murder upon their people could be brought to\npunishment_.\u201d Generals Harney and Pope have testified of late\nthat this is as true now as then.\n\nIn 1802 President Jefferson wrote to a friend that he had heard\nthat there was one man left of the Peorias, and said \u201cIf there\nis only one, justice demands that his rights shall be respected.\u201d\nReviewing subsequent history we may well repeat Jefferson\u2019s\nsolemn words, \u201cI tremble for my country when I know that God is\njust!\u201d\n\nWe can make no more treaties with the Indians. The act of 1871\nput an end to that dreadful farce. There have been nearly 900\ntreaties since 1785. They have been the loaded dice with which we\nhave always won and the Indian always lost. We have hoodwinked\nourselves by them to a perpetual fraud and deception. They have\nbeen to the Indian a veritable compact of death. Relying on\nthem he has sooner or later found himself held by the throat by\nthe wolf starvation, or impaled on the bayonet of the soldier;\ncrowded to the wall by the encroaching settler, or removed to\nthe wilderness by the Government as soon as he had begun to make\nfor himself a home. The Stockbridges have been thus removed four\ntimes in a hundred years, and are now on a reservation where it\nis impossible to get a living. The Poncas are the latest instance.\n\nTreaties must give place to personal rights. We must provide\nsomething better for him than a reservation; that is, life in\na community for which we have provided no law, no courts, no\npolice, no officer other than an anomalous \u201cagent,\u201d no ownership\nof land\u2014nothing, in short, that all civilized people regard\nas the first element of civilized life, and without which the\ncongregate life of bodies of men is impossible. We say to him,\nCease to be a savage, hungry but free, and come and be a pauper,\ndependent on the will of others, without law, and still hungry.\nAs one of the agents wrote in 1875: \u201cIt is a condition of things\nthat would turn a white community into chaos in twelve months.\u201d\nIt behooves every honest man, every man who loves his country,\nto see that the day of equal personal rights for the Indian, the\nonly man on the broad earth who has none, shall at once dawn.\n\nBut I remember that I am speaking to a company of Christians.\nReligion before all else can prepare the Indian to make the\nmost of his citizenship. Look at this picture. Here is a wigwam\nin the pine forest. Before it is a tall pole, from the top of\nwhich hangs a dried bladder containing a few rattling shells\nand stones. It is the wigwam of Shaydayence, or Little Pelican,\nchief medicine man of the Gull Lakers. He is the incarnation of\nthe devil in that tribe. He holds the tribe in his hand, and\nrepresents their idolatry and their bloodthirstiness. It is due\nto him that the missionary has been driven away. More than that,\nhe is an inveterate drunkard. He has been rescued from freezing\nto death, drunk in the woods, by a chance lumberman finding him\nand thawing him out before an extemporized fire.\n\nThe scene changes. There is again a wigwam. Lift the blanket door\nand enter. Three old women are warming themselves by the fire\nin the centre. A young man lies upon the ground singing aloud\nfrom an Ojibway hymn-book, which he reads by the fire-light. An\nold man rises to greet you, asks you to sit down, and proceeds\nto talk about Jesus Christ. It is the same Shaydayence. He is\nknown now as the leader of the singing band of the Chippewas, who\ngoes from house to house with a few young men to plead with his\ncountrymen to love Christ. A little later you find him living\nin a log house with table and chairs and stove, a white man\u2019s\nhome, cultivating also his garden. What wrought the change? He\nhad a friend, Nayboneshkong, who was sick and dying. He went\nto see him. The sick man had long been a Christian, and now\nrallied himself to speak for the last time. Hour after hour he\nexpostulated and pleaded. He rose from his bed with preternatural\nstrength. He walked the floor, still talking and praying. Morning\ncame, Nayboneshkong was dead, and Shaydayence went to his wigwam\nto begin the new life of a Christian man. Observe that he was a\nsavage, a medicine man and a drunkard. What other influence could\nhave saved him? Would education, or citizenship, or civilization,\nor legal standing, or property rights? Nothing; nothing but the\npersonal power of Jesus Christ; and that did.\n\nThe story goes that once there appeared at the cave of a hermit\na little child, naked and cold and hungry. The good man eagerly\ntook him in, and from his own scanty store clothed and fed and\nwarmed him. He set his heart upon him as upon his own son. The\nnext day the hermit was gone. It was Jesus who had come thus\nneedy to his door, and proving his love, had in return taken him\nto himself, and like Enoch, the hermit was not. The child, naked\nand hungry and cold at our door, is the Indian. I hear the voice\nof the Lord himself saying, \u201cInasmuch as ye have done it unto one\nof the least of these, ye have done it unto me.\u201d\n\nYou have pointed out the large part which in the providence of\nGod may yet be appointed to the negro race to play in doing God\u2019s\nwork in the world.\n\nI know nothing of the future of the Indian in this direction.\nHe may have no \u201cgenius for religion,\u201d no \u201cpeculiar talent of\nfaith,\u201d no \u201cwonderful power in song.\u201d That he has talents which\nare respectable, none who know him can doubt. But be that as it\nmay, before all other men he stands to-day the living witness of\nthe promise of the Scripture, that Christ \u201cis able to save to the\nuttermost them that come unto God by him.\u201d He, brethren, is the\n\u201cuttermost\u201d man\u2014the sinner who, abused, outcast and despised,\nis, at least in your eyes, the furthest of all men from hope and\nfrom Christ. Have you religion enough to try to save him? If so,\nbegin by showing him justice.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE CHINESE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\u201cCALIFORNIA CHINESE MISSION.\u201d\n\nAuxiliary to the American Missionary Association.\n\n  PRESIDENT: Rev. J. K. McLean, D. D. VICE-PRESIDENTS: Rev. A. L.\n  Stone, D. D., Thomas O. Wedderspoon, Esq., Rev. T. E. Noble, Hon.\n  F. F. Low, Rev. I. E. Dwinell, D. D., Hon. Samuel Cross, Rev. S.\n  H. Willey, D. D., Edward P. Flint, Esq., Rev. J. W. Hough, D. D.,\n  Jacob S. Taber, Esq.\n\n  DIRECTORS: Rev. George Mooar, D. D., Hon. E. D. Sawyer, Rev. E.\n  P. Baker, James M. Haven, Esq., Rev. Joseph Rowell, Rev. John\n  Kimball, E. P. Sanford, Esq.\n\n  SECRETARY: Rev. W. C. Pond. TREASURER: E. Palache, Esq.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nREPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.\n\nThe report opens with stating the greatness of the problems\nwith which the Association has to grapple, protests against the\ndiscriminating legislation of State and nation, and concludes as\nfollows:\n\nWe regard the work of this Association among the Chinamen in\nAmerica as fruitful in good results. Its Superintendent on\nthe field has said: \u201cI doubt whether any evangelistic labor\nin connection with our churches has yielded larger results,\nin proportion to the funds employed and the breadth which we\nhave been permitted to give to the work.\u201d That work has been\nlimited. Out of $179,000 expended by this Association last year,\nonly $6,596 was given to this work. This was increased a little\nby other funds in California. But this sum, applied to twelve\nschools, with twenty-one teachers and 1,489 pupils, is too small\nfor the greatness of the work, for the 100,000 Chinamen in this\ncountry have the closest relations with the millions left at\nhome. They are constantly coming and going. The Rev. W. C. Pond\nsaid in 1876 that during the fourteen preceding years nearly\n130,000 had landed in San Francisco, or about 9,000 annually; but\nthey are returning nearly or quite as fast as they come. They\nare \u201cpicked young men, industrious, enterprising, persistent.\u201d\nAs they come to us, feel our molding touch to harden or to\nsoften, and then return home, we owe it to them, to ourselves,\nand to Christ, to pass as much as possible of this moving stream\nof immortal souls through our schools and under the influence\nof One greater than Confucius. We want the returning stream to\nbear on its bosom the glad tidings of the Lord Jesus Christ. We,\ntherefore, recommend the enlargement of this work to its utmost\ndemand. It touches vitally the evangelization of 400,000,000\nof brothers and sisters. This work is broader than that among\nthe Indian and the Negro; it is broader than the evangelization\nof Africa. We press its importance, therefore, both upon the\nofficers and the constituent members of this Association, for by\nand by we may see in it the Divine purpose to redeem China by\nmeans of the Chinamen returning home laden with the riches of\ngrace, more precious than gold.\n\nYour committee desire to express their high appreciation of the\nable and exhaustive paper on the Chinese question read before the\nAssociation by the Rev. J. H. Twichell, and submitted to this\ncommittee, and recommend its publication.\n\nYour committee deem it of great importance suitably to recognize\nthe action of President Hayes in saving us by a veto from\nnational disgrace. When Congress had so far forgotten the whole\npast policy of our Government, and the principles of Christianity\nimbedded in the foundations of the Republic, as to pass a bill\nindirectly abrogating a treaty unmentioned in the bill, the\nExecutive interposed and saved both our treaty and our honor.\n\nWe would suggest, therefore, the expression of our appreciation\nof his action in the adoption of the following resolution, viz.:\n\n_Resolved_, That the American Missionary Association, assembled\nin its thirty-third anniversary, believing that the treaties\nexisting between the United States and China, so far as they\nrelate to the rights of emigration from one country to the other,\nand the treatment such emigrants should receive from the people\nand nation among whom and in which they live, are right, just,\nwise and Christian, does heartily record its appreciation of\nthe high services which President Hayes, under God, has, by his\ntimely veto of the anti-Chinese bill, been enabled to render\nthe Republic, in preserving inviolate its treaty obligations\nand also the cause of Christianity, in removing a threatened\nformidable barrier to the evangelization of the Chinese, not only\nin America, but also in their native land, and the Association\nhereby tenders him its profound thanks for the same.\n\n_Resolved_, That the secretaries of this Association be\nauthorized to convey to President Hayes this our action.\n\n                                              A. HASTINGS ROSS,\n                                              W. A. NICHOLS,\n                                              CHARLES C. CRAGIN,\n                                              MARK WILLIAMS,\n                                              C. CAVERNO,\n                                              E. M. WILLIAMS,\n                                              JEE GAM.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nUNITED STATES AND CHINA\u2014THE SITUATION.\n\nREV. J. H. TWICHELL, HARTFORD, CONN.\n\nOUR OPPORTUNITY.\n\n* * * * Much as anterior conditions and causes have to do with\nit, the great opportunity now maturing in China for the ingress\nof revolutionary influences from without, has been pre-eminently\nshaped by Protestant missions; and in the nature of the case,\nit devolves on Protestant Christendom the highest obligations\nto meet it that circumstances can create. To no other nation,\nhowever, does such a share of this opportunity and corresponding\nobligation fall as to the United States; for we sustain relations\nto the Chinese Government and to the Chinese people that are, in\nimportant respects, singular.\n\n(1.) To begin with, there is the relation of _neighborhood_.\nSailing up the Pacific, near our coast, one summer evening, Yung\nWing, leaning against the steamer guards, and looking across the\nlevel waters to the westward, said, \u201cYonder lies my country, next\nland to this.\u201d Between us and China, between our two realms,\nthe one so old, the other so young, for a thousand miles of\ncoast on either side, nothing intervenes but the sea, which no\nstate owns, and that is contiguity. Along so great a boundary\nAmerica and China may be said to touch, yet without possibility\nof territorial dispute. And this nearness is one feature of our\nspecial opportunity.\n\n(2.) A second and more pregnant feature of it is to be noted\nin the _good-will_ that in a peculiar degree characterizes the\nrelations of our two countries in the past and in the present.\nThis may seem a strange thing to say just now, but the truth of\nit will appear on a brief survey of facts. Probably it is less\nour merit than our fortune, but it is certainly the latter,\nthat through the whole stage of that unhappy, though largely\nunavoidable collision of China with the foreign powers, by which\nshe was forced off from her intolerable policy of exclusion,\nour Government was the least conspicuous of the principal\naggressors,\u2014less so than France, less so than England, less\nso than Russia. To the several treaties in which the collision\nissued, that with the United States, and that alone, contained\nthe express provision that the parties to it, and their peoples\nrespectively, should \u201cnot insult or oppress each other for any\ntrifling cause, so as to produce an estrangement between them.\u201d\nThere has been, and is, less bitter remembrance of us on the\nscore of that conflict than of the other belligerents engaged\nin it. Again, while we have subsequently had men in the various\nranks of our diplomatic service in China who have hurt us there,\nand have them still, we have probably given least offence on\n_that_ score. No thanks to our civil service want of system; but\nin the providence of God, we have had more than our proportion\nthere of men who have helped our good fame. Eighteen years ago\nwe sent thither an ambassador, one result of whose six years of\nofficial life there was, that at the end of that time jealous\nPekin had come to recognize in him, what he truly was, a friend\nto China. I mean, of course, Anson Burlingame, of Massachusetts.\nFor his friendship, China offered to his acceptance honors never\nbefore or since conferred on a foreigner. She freely committed\nto his hands a trust of supreme magnitude. She made him her\nambassador to all the western people. In that capacity he came\nhome to his own country, and framed with us the first of that new\nseries of treaties in which China gave and received the pledge\nthat made her a member on equal footing of the family of nations.\nAnd that treaty, the work of our own citizen, large minded\nenough to value the capabilities of that great people, large\nhearted enough also to make his sympathy felt by its rulers,\nstill stands, and is _going_ to stand. But this most remarkable\nand luminous paragraph of history\u2014is there another such between\nChina and any other nation but ours?\n\n(3.) Finally, as if to supply the last term required to complete\nour relationship for all possible service to the Chinese race, as\nif to openly designate and summon us to the office of aiding its\nemergence into a new life, especially of ministering to it the\nholy faith, (which is the best gift we have to impart, the one\nsecret and source of our happier lot,) for us and for us alone,\nof all Protestant Christendom, by bringing to our soil, to the\npresence of our institutions, to our church doors, a multitude\nof Chinese people themselves, God provided the condition of\n_personal contact_. That was the rounding and perfection of our\nopportunity.\n\nBut, it will naturally be inquired, is not whatsoever exceptional\nadvantage gained for us in the past mostly annulled by the later\nand recent record of social and political hostility here at home,\nwhich stands against us in our account with China? I think not.\n\nThe shameful truth is, China is wonted to the ill-treatment of\nher subjects on foreign Christian soil, and if we have furnished\nno exception to the rule, our outrage has been milder than she is\naccustomed to; so that, after all that has happened to wound her\nfeelings here, there still remains to us the benefit, though it\nis nothing, I repeat, to be proud of, of comparison with worse\ndoers.\n\n\nADVANTAGES OF THE ANTI-CHINESE AGITATION.\n\nI am glad to pass to a pleasanter topic, and to remark next, that\nthere are certain incidental consequences of the anti-Chinese\nagitation, and, as well, certain circumstances felicitously\ncontemporaneous with it, that have operated to offset and\ncountervail the injury which that agitation may be supposed to\nhave inflicted on our relation with China\u2014that have done more\nthan that.\n\nFirst, it has developed and brought out into expression a _vastly\npreponderant public opinion adverse to the whole movement_. The\nargument for it has been heard and canvassed, and not without\nsympathy; for it was presented by our own countrymen, and it\nwas not to be questioned that they were in a measure of honest\ndifficulty of some sort with the matter they brought to trial.\nBut I think it is entirely true to say that the event of the\ndiscussion has been that the argument is answered. It did not\nstand as to its facts. I believe that all the main counts of the\nindictment against Chinese emigration and Chinese emigrants we\nseverally disproved to the public satisfaction.\n\nBut beside this aspect of the case, and to a great extent\nindependently of it, the judgment asked for, _viz., the adoption\nof the policy of exclusion, was considered_. Whereupon it\nappeared that it was the proposal of an act no less serious, no\nless forbidden, than to disown and repudiate a principle, the\nmaintenance of which more than any other thing distinguishes\nus as a nation, which our fathers built into the foundation of\nour government, which we have always advocated to the world in\nevery publishment of our political creed\u2014a principle which\nwe have ever claimed to be one of natural right, which we\nhave persistently endeavored, from the outset of our national\nexistence, to persuade other governments to recognize as such,\nand which we had particularly emphasized in the very treaty of\nwhich this act, if consented to, would be the violation. It\nappeared, furthermore, that it was a proposal that we take toward\nChina the very attitude which we had helped force China out of,\nas towards ourselves and other nations, _i. e._, that we borrow a\npage of cast-off Chinese politics and insert it in our law\u2014that\nit was a proposal to return from the nineteenth to the eleventh\ncentury, and convert to the use of a modern free republic\nsomething in the likeness of a medieval edict against the Jews;\nthat, finally, it was a proposal to go back upon ourselves, to\nrevoke our own most recent step of advance in civilization, and\nrestore that doctrine of race discrimination, which we had lately\nput away.\n\nAnd when this was seen, the country said, No! Legislature,\nchamber of commerce, institutions of learning, benevolent\norganizations, united in the protest. The general voice was, that\nwhatever evil there was to be remedied must be dealt with in some\nother way. A Congressional committee, indeed, brought in a report\nnot warranted by the evidence it had heard, favorable to the\npolicy of exclusion\u2014the lamented Morton dissenting\u2014and Congress\nitself passed the anti-Chinese bill. But that was Congress,\nwhich has reasons of its own for what it does sometimes, not\nvery mysterious in this instance. But the report for the people,\nwhich the people with little distinction of party gratefully and\naudibly accepted, was made by President Hayes in his strong veto.\n\nOf course the Chinese Government, through its representatives at\nWashington, is accurately informed of all this; and besides, the\nChinese Government reads the papers. Thus an attempt which, had\nit succeeded, would have destroyed our friendship with China, has\nnot only failed, but has been the occasion of such an expression\nof the national sentiment of good-will toward her as never had\nbeen made before, and as could not have been made otherwise.\n\nA minor but very much to be noted result of the affair has been\n_the disclosure of the actual state of things in California_.\nIt has shown how and where the anti-Chinese movement started,\nhow low its origin was and how it grew, by what means, by what\nmanagement it drew into it such respectable elements as it did;\nthat it was fomented by the press operating in the field of\nState politics\u2014that it was mainly a worked-up irrational furor\nkindling by contagion, and did not really signify what it seemed\nto. It was shown that much of the best part of California was not\nin it. Why, the evidence for the defence on which the country,\nbalancing it with the other evidence heard, found its verdict\naforesaid, was, all of it, the evidence of California men\u2014men\nfrom the first rank of citizenship. It transpired that there was\nin California a not inconsiderable party on the poor Chinaman\u2019s\nside, not forbearing to denounce and oppose the violation of his\nrights, and to testify in his favor, that much as had been said\nand done there against him, a good deal in the name of Christian\nbenevolence and humanity and justice had been said and done for\nhim. And so in the upshot of the public trial of the case it has\ncome about that the offence of California is mitigated by it.\n\nAnd to the affront perpetrated in the halls of Congress in\naddition to the offset furnished by the public attitude, there\nhas been a special one, too remarkable not to be mentioned.\nIt was a most lamentable spectacle to see a man like James G.\nBlaine, of New England, in the eminence of his position, his\ngreat gifts and his reputation, stand up in the United States\nSenate, and before the world turn the power of his rare eloquence\nagainst the cause of the weak. It was too bad. It cannot be\nexcused. But not only did his utterances call out replies from\nthe most capable and influential sources, notably from Dr.\nS. Wells Williams, long resident in China, but now of Yale\nCollege, than whom there is no higher authority on China and\nChinese affairs living; from Henry Ward Beecher, in a splendid\naddress given in Philadelphia on the 3d of last March; and\nfrom William Lloyd Garrison, in a noble letter of protest, his\ndying deliverance, the last shot the old warrior for humanity\nfired;\u2014not only, I say, did Mr. Blaine provoke these replies by\nwhich he was convicted of ignorance and fallacy and his argument\nthroughout annihilated; but it happened that almost at the same\ntime he was misrepresenting both China and us at the Capitol,\nanother citizen of this country, in the eminence of a still\nmore illustrious fame, was in the far East, in the audience of\nChina herself, speaking our true mind for us; for it was to\na delegation of the Chinese merchants of Penang that, in the\nmonth of April of the present year, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, in\nthat felicity of well-chosen and straightforward simple speech\nthat is characteristic of him, said, \u201cThe hostility of which\nyou complain does not represent the real sentiment of America,\nbut is the work of demagogues. * * * I do not doubt, and no one\ncan doubt, that in the end, no matter what effect the agitation\nfor the time being may have, the American people will treat the\nChinese with kindness and justice, and not deny to the true and\ndeserving people of your country the asylum they offer to the\nrest of the world.\u201d And may God bless him for saying it.\n\nMoreover, in the month of June following, this same man of great\ndeeds and weighty speech, in an interview with certain of the\nhighest officials of the empire at Peking, and at their request,\noffered counsel, which a few weeks later, on a like request, he\nrepeated in an interview with the Emperor of Japan, to the effect\nthat the time had now arrived when the two nations of China and\nJapan, in peace and close alliance with one another, should no\nlonger submit as they had done to the interference and dictation\nof foreign powers in their affairs; should assume control of\ntheir own commerce, and together stand for their independence and\ntheir proper rights, as it became so great nations to do, and as\nthey were able to do against the world. God bless him for saying\nthat, too! It was the most seasonable word, next to the Gospel,\nthat has been spoken on that side of the world in this age. And\nI, for one, am thankful and proud that it was an American who had\nthe breadth of vision and the magnanimity to speak it.\n\nAnd now there remains to be spoken of an outcome of good from\nthe anti-Chinese agitation that is of more immediately practical\nconsequence than any other. It has been the occasion of calling\nuniversal and earnest _attention_, such as had not been drawn to\nit before, and such as it is scarcely conceivable could have been\ndrawn to it otherwise, _to the fact of the presence within our\nborders of so many of the Chinese people_. The nation at large\nis now aware of them and informed with respect to them. While\nit is not yet settled what is to be done with them politically,\nand while no doubt there will be further contention over them,\nit does seem to be settled that they are not to go by a violent\ndismissal. Here they are, then, more than a hundred thousand\nsouls of them, and here they are to stay. They are an object of\nthe very highest interest, and that for more reasons than one.\nNot only are they such in themselves, but they constitute by\nfar the most vital point of our contact with that great nation\nbeyond the sea, and afford the most available means and medium\nof reaching it that we possess. And we are interested in them on\nour own account. By their presence we have already been put to\nthe test in one way, and we are still to be tested by them in\nother ways. We are to be tested as to the capacity of our civil\ninstitutions, and as to the power of our religion\u2014no, not as to\nthe power of our religion, but as to our power in it.\n\nIt is one of the most humiliating confessions that can be made,\nto say that these people cannot be granted room on our soil, with\nliberty and justice under our laws, with safety to ourselves. It\nis a still more humiliating confession to say that the attempt to\nChristianize them is a hopeless one.\n\nIs it so that in their case we have come to the end of our\nresources for securing men the exercise and enjoyment of their\nfew inalienable rights under our Government? Then they are\nvastly less than we had thought. Is it so that the encounter of\nour Christianity with heathenism in the persons of a few score\nthousand pagans, here on our ground, within hearing of our\nSabbath bells, is too much to be ventured, lest heathenism win\nthe day? Then there is not enough to our Christianity to make it\nmuch matter.\n\nIt is all absurd to say such things. It is not indeed to be\nquestioned that the problem of dealing with this strange element\nthrown in upon us is a perplexed and difficult one; but it is\nnot the first perplexed and difficult matter we have had to\naccommodate, nor is it the last. Our labors as a nation are not\nover. The time when there will be no perilous or incommoding\nexigencies arising to disturb our ease as citizens is far\ndistant. Who thinks it not so is greatly mistaken. As other\nvexing problems in the past have been solved, so with patience\nthis Chinese problem can be without sacrifice of principle.\n\n\nOUR CHRISTIAN DUTY.\n\nIt is a work in which the state and the church must co-operate.\nBut we are here to-day to look especially to the part which the\nlatter has in it\u2014as servants of Christ and as representatives\nof the Christian community to attend to the cry of the poor that\ncomes to us from the Pacific coast, and to consider how we shall\nrespond to it.\n\nThe one thing which we are disallowed, be it first of all\nobserved, is to deem that our principal duty in the premises is\ndischarged by giving hard words to California. We are not to sit\nin judgment on California. We are not in a position to do so, and\nI trust we are not disposed to do so. There are reasons which the\nrest of the country does not perceive, certainly does not feel\nas California does, why the presence in her population of this\nunassimilated foreign mass is very undesirable and very trying.\nNot a doubt of it. I have heard Yung Wing himself say it. We may\nwith propriety, in view of some reasons, on the other hand, that\nnaturally enough we see more clearly than they do in California,\nplead with our fellow-citizens there to try and discern the\nlarger aspects of the situation, and to bear whatsoever ills\nit entails upon them till they can be remedied in the way that\nis best for all of us and for all men. If I had the ear of the\nIrish citizens of California I would plead with them, as lately\nforeigners themselves, and as sons of a church that for more than\nfive hundred years has befriended China through her missions,\nand is still doing it, to regard these new foreigners with more\nkindness.\n\nCalifornia is a grand State\u2014splendid in her youthful prime\u2014a\nqueenly figure sitting there on her golden shore\u2014our own flesh\nand blood. Our warmest sympathies, our best hopes are with her.\nTo look upon any fault of hers with less than a generous charity\nis out of character, and besides, in the present instance, it is\nnothing to the purpose. The only course for Christian America\nto take at this juncture is to offer California our Christian\nservice. That we can do, and the way of it is plain. There are\nfaithful brethren and faithful churches in California ready\nand waiting for help in the work already by them inaugurated,\nand carried on sufficiently far to prove beyond cavil the\npracticability of its success, bringing these Chinese thousands\nunder the sway of the gospel of Christ. Some help we have sent\nthem, but not enough. There ought to be abundance of it; not\nonly abundance, but a sufficiency\u2014all that can be used to\nadvantage. This is a mission that ought to be lavishly supported,\nthat ought not to be stinted as respects either money or men.\nAnd the time to push it is now. If the churches of the country\nwill encourage and assist the enterprise in a free-handed,\nfree-hearted, neighborly way\u2014the churches of our order, through\nthe agency of this vigorous and patriotic Association\u2014the\nChinese question would ere long be satisfactorily and permanently\ndisposed of. Nothing would be so effectual to modify and reshape\nthe public sentiment of California upon it as such a Christian\ndemonstration. Nothing would more effectually contribute to the\nevangelization of China. Nor is there anything at present within\nour power that would apparently do more to hasten the conversion\nof the world.\n\n\n\n\nRECEIPTS\n\nFOR OCTOBER, 1879.\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n  MAINE, $94.74.\n\n    Bangor. First Parish Ch.                                 $28.00\n    Bethel. Second Cong. Ch.                                  10.00\n    Brownville. C. L. Nichols, 2 bbls. of C.\n    East Madison. Eliza Bicknell                               5.00\n    Gardiner. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                              16.84\n    North Yarmouth. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                         5.00\n    Orland. M. C. Trott                                        5.00\n    Thomaston. Ladies of Cong. Ch., bbl. of C.\n    Wells. First Cong. Ch.                                    15.00\n    Winterport. W. R. M.                                       2.00\n    Winthrop. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                               5.40\n    Woolwich. John Percy, $2; E. H. T., 50c                    2.50\n    Yarmouth. First Cong. Ch., 3 bbls. of C.,\n      Central Ch., bbl. of C.\n\n\n  NEW HAMPSHIRE, $121.58.\n\n    Amherst. Women\u2019s Memorial Union, $10; First\n      Cong. Ch., $7.50                                        17.50\n    Atkinson. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                              10.00\n    Colebrook. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                              4.00\n    Concord. No. Cong. Ch., bbl. of C.\n    Derry. Mrs. H. R. Underhill, box and bbl. of C.\n    Dover. Mrs. Dr. L.                                         1.00\n    Fitzwilliam. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                            6.00\n    Hillsborough Bridge. Cong. Ch.                             3.50\n    Lancaster. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                             15.00\n    Milford. First Cong. Ch.                                  13.58\n    Nashua. First Cong. Ch. and Soc.                          16.50\n    New Ipswich. Proceeds of Children\u2019s Fair                  16.00\n    New Ipswich. Cong. Sab. Sch. ($10 of which\n      from Leavitt Lincoln)                                   13.50\n    Wolfborough. Rev. S. Clark                                 5.00\n\n\n  VERMONT, $303.38.\n\n    Barnet. Cong. Ch. and Soc., $18.29; M. Larens,\n      $3.88                                                   22.17\n    Cambridge. Madison Safford                                44.94\n    Charlotte. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                             41.50\n    Derby. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                                  5.00\n    East Poultney. A. D. Wilcox                                5.00\n    Ferrisburg. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                             2.25\n    McIndoe\u2019s Falls. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                       17.00\n    Montgomery Centre. \u201cFriends\u201d                               5.00\n    Newport. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                                6.00\n    Saint Albans. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                          17.19\n    Saint Johnsbury. North Ch. Sab. Sch.                      50.00\n    South Ryegate. Mrs. Wm. Nelson                            50.00\n    West Brattleborough. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                   14.66\n    Weybridge. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                             22.67\n\n\n  MASSACHUSETTS, $6,208.96.\n\n    Agawam. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                                 6.62\n    Amherst. North Cong. Ch. and Soc., $60, to\n      const. AUSTIN D. LOOMIS and WM. D. CROCKER,\n      L. M.\u2019s;\u2014Mrs. R. A. Lester, $50.00                     110.00\n    Andover. Old South Cong. Ch. and Soc.                    300.00\n    Ashby. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                                  6.50\n    Attleborough Falls. Central Cong. Ch.                      6.86\n    Cambridgeport. Pilgrim Ch. and Soc.                       14.23\n    Charlestown. Winthrop Cong. Ch. and Soc.                  60.23\n    Charlton. Cong. Ch. and Soc. $10.86, and Sab.\n      Sch. $5.24                                              16.10\n    Chelsea. First Cong. Ch. and Soc. $45.40;\n      Central Cong. Ch. and Soc. $16.30                       61.70\n    Chicopee. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc.                       18.35\n    Bernardston. Cong. Ch.                                     6.00\n    Boston. Mrs. Henry Mayo, $10, _for Lady\n      Missionary, Memphis, Tenn._;\u2014G. E. S. K., $1            11.00\n    Boxborough. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                             5.00\n    Brookline. Harvard Cong. Ch. and Soc.                     76.61\n    Bridgewater. Central Sq. Trin. Ch. and Soc.               41.25\n    East Hampton. First Cong. Ch. and Soc.                    75.92\n    Fitchburg. Rollstone Cong. Ch. and Soc.,\n      $154.03, to const. SAMUEL S. HOLTON, GEO. P.\n      CROSBY, THOMAS R. LAWRENCE, WM. A. LOOMIS\n      and MRS. REBECCA S. CARPENTER, L. M.\u2019s;\u2014E.\n      C. Ch. and Soc., $133.89                               287.92\n    Florence. A. L. Williston                                500.00\n    Framingham. South. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                     50.00\n    Gardner. First Cong. Ch. and Soc.                         10.00\n    Georgetown. \u201cA Friend\u201d                                    50.00\n    Harvard. Evan. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                         34.00\n    Haverhill. Central Cong. Ch. and Soc.                     46.00\n    Holyoke. First Cong. Ch. and Soc.                          9.00\n    Hubbardston. Evan. Cong. Ch. and Soc.,\n      $31.25;\u2014Cong. Sab. Sch., $22.37; Juv. Miss.\n      Circle, $17, _for Student Aid, Fisk U._                 70.62\n    Hyde Park. First Cong. Ch. and Soc.                       28.00\n    Ipswich. First Cong. Ch. and Soc.                          5.00\n    Lancaster. Evan. Cong. Ch. and Soc. (ad\u2019l)                 1.00\n    Lee. Cong. Sab. Sch.                                      75.00\n    Lowell. Elliot Cong. Ch. and Soc.                         28.65\n    Lowell. Pawtucket Cong. Ch. and Soc.                      14.50\n    Lynn. Central Cong. Ch. and Soc., $16.50; H.\n      J. Martin, $3, and bbl. of C.                           19.50\n    Monson. Rev. C. B. Sumner                                  5.00\n    Newburyport. North Cong. Ch., $100, _for a\n      Lady Missionary, Macon, Ga._;\u2014Belleville\n      Cong. Ch. and Soc., $67                                167.00\n    Newton. Eliot Ch.                                        125.00\n    Northampton. First Cong. Ch.                              73.07\n    North Leominster. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                       4.00\n    Norwood. Cong. Ch. and Soc., $20.60; Mrs. H.\n      N. F., $1                                               21.60\n    Oxford. First Cong. Ch. and Soc.                          22.09\n    Pittsfield. Second Cong. Sab. Sch.                         5.00\n    Princeton. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                              3.25\n    Quincy. Evan. Cong. and Soc.                              72.50\n    Rockport. Levi Sewall                                      5.00\n    Roxbury. Misses Soren                                      4.00\n    Rutland. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                                6.00\n    Salem. M. T. Goodhue                                       2.00\n    Sandwich. H. H. Nye                                        2.00\n    Shirley Village. H. H. Nye                                 1.00\n    Somerset. Rev. J. C. Halliday                             10.00\n    Somerville. \u201cA Friend.\u201d                                     .50\n    Southampton. J. E. Phelps                                  2.00\n    South Hadley Falls. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                    15.00\n    Springfield. \u201cA Friend,\u201d _for a Teacher_                 500.00\n    Springfield. Memorial Ch., $31.58; First Cong.\n      Ch. and Soc., $26.38; So. Cong. Ch. and\n      Soc., $20.78; Mrs. P. B., $1                            79.74\n    Stoneham. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                              12.34\n    Townsend. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                               5.50\n    Westborough. Freedmen\u2019s M. Ass\u2019n, bbl. of C.\n    West Boylston. First Cong. Ch. and Soc.                   20.00\n    Westfield. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc.                      30.00\n    Westhampton. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                           14.00\n    Weymouth. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc. $48.75;\n      Ladies\u2019 Miss. Soc. of Second Ch., $13.25, to\n      const. MRS. LIZZIE ANN TORREY and MISS\n      EMELINE F. PAINE, L. M.\u2019s                               62.00\n    Winchendon. First Cong. Sab. Sch., to const.\n      MARTHA E. SMITH, L. M.                                  30.00\n    Worcester. Estate of Rev. M. G. Grosvenor, by\n      David Manning, Ex.                                   2,500.00\n    Worcester. Central Cong. Ch. and Soc.,\n      $159.44; Salem St. Ch. and Soc.,\n      $68.01;\u2014Salem St. Sab. Sch., $50, _for\n      Student Aid, Atlanta U._;\u2014Old South Ch. and\n      Soc., $36.45; Hiram Smith and family, $30;\n      \u201cE. C. C.,\u201d $20                                        363.90\n\n\n  RHODE ISLAND, $355.\n\n    Providence. Central Cong. Ch., _for Church\n      building, Florence, Ala._                              100.00\n    Providence. Beneficent Cong. Ch.                         250.00\n    Westerly. Mrs. Emeline Smith                               5.00\n\n\n  CONNECTICUT, $1,018.62.\n\n    Ashford. L. H. Carpenter                                   2.00\n    Avon. Cong. Ch. (of which $100 from Harry\n      Chidsey and $1.50 from Mrs. M. Avent)                  129.00\n    Cheshire. \u201cA Friend\u201d                                      15.00\n    Berlin. Second Cong. Ch.                                  20.11\n    East Woodstock. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                        19.00\n    Farmington. Cong. Ch., quarterly coll.                    74.60\n    Franklin. Cong. Ch. (ad\u2019l)                                 8.00\n    Georgetown. Cong. Ch.                                      5.00\n    Guilford. First Cong. Ch.                                 20.00\n    Hockanum. Mrs. E. M. Roberts, $5; South Cong.\n      Ch., $4                                                  9.00\n    Higganum. Mrs. Susan Gladwin, $2; Mrs. R.\n      Reed, $1.24; Mrs. G. S. G., $1                           4.24\n    Litchfield. \u201cL. M.\u201d                                        3.00\n    Middletown. First Ch., $79.30; Rev. Geo. L.\n      Edwards, $2                                             81.30\n    Mill Brook. Mrs. E. R. A                                   1.00\n    Milford. Mrs. David Merwin                                 3.00\n    New Haven. \u201cA. T.\u201d $20; E. Pendleton, $10; N.\n      J., 50 cts                                              30.50\n    North Guilford. Mrs. E. F. Dudley                          5.00\n    Norfolk. Cong. Ch.                                        75.00\n    Norwalk. Mrs. Dea. Chas. Lockwood                          2.00\n    Norwich. Mrs. Dr. Chas. Lee                               25.00\n    Old Saybrook. Cong. Ch.                                    8.30\n    Plainville. \u201cA Friend\u201d to const. MRS. MARY\n      WRIGHT and MRS. HENRIETTA BEACH, L. M\u2019s                100.00\n    Preston City. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                          26.75\n    Putnam. \u201cA Friend\u201d                                         5.00\n    Southport. \u201cA Friend,\u201d _for a Student, Fisk U._           25.00\n    Thomaston. Cong. Ch.                                      25.11\n    Warren. LEGACY of Dea. Wm. Hopkins, by Geo. C.\n      Hopkins, Ex.                                           100.00\n    Watertown. John De Forest, $75, _for Student\n      Aid, Fisk U._;\u2014Truman Percy, $30, to const.\n      MARY E. SHORT, L.M                                     105.00\n    West Winsted. Second Cong. Ch. and Soc.                   16.71\n    Windsor. J. W. Baker                                      25.00\n    Windsor Locks. Young Ladies\u2019 Social Soc., _for\n      a Lady Missionary_                                      50.00\n\n\n  NEW YORK, $444.99.\n\n    Amsterdam. S. Louise Bell                                  5.00\n    Brooklyn. Central Cong. Sab. Sch., $30, _for a\n      Lady Missionary_ and to const. E. R.\n      KENNEDY, L. M., and $25 _for Rev. Geo. Henry_           55.00\n    Brooklyn. Rev. A. Merwin, $10; Puritan Ch. $8;\n      Mrs. J. V. Houten, $2                                   20.00\n    Camillus. Isaiah Wilcox, to const. MISS FLORA\n      BUTTERFIELD, L. M.                                      30.00\n    Cortland. C. E. Booth, 25c. and pkg. of\n      newspapers                                               0.25\n    East Bloomfield. Mrs. A. G. P.                             1.00\n    East Wilson. Rev. H. Halsey, $50; Chas. M.\n      Clark, $3                                               53.00\n    Essex Co. \u201cA Friend,\u201d _for Student Aid, Fisk\n      U._                                                     50.00\n    Groton. Dr. C. Chapman                                     6.00\n    Hempstead. Mrs. C. M. H.                                   0.50\n    Jamestown. \u2014\u2014,                                            20.00\n    Keeseville. Mrs. M. A. H.                                  1.00\n    Lisbon. First Cong. Ch.                                    8.00\n    Middleton. Samuel Ayres ($2 of which _for\n      Foreign M._)                                             5.00\n    New York. S. J. B.                                         0.25\n    Oxford. Associated Presb. Ch.                              6.57\n    Perry Centre. Cong. Soc.                                  20.24\n    Portland. J. S. Coon, $5; Rev. J. R. B., $1;\n      Others, $1.25                                            7.25\n    Pulaski. Miss M. E. P.                                     1.00\n    Rochester. Plymouth Cong. Ch.                             75.82\n    Rome. John B. Jervis                                      25.00\n    Syracuse. \u201cMember of Plymouth Ch.,\u201d                       25.00\n    West Farms. Mrs. Rev. A. Wood, $10; Ref. Ch.\n      S. S., pkg. of Books                                    10.00\n    Westmoreland. First Cong. Sab. Sch.                        4.11\n    \u2014\u2014 \u201cA Friend,\u201d _for Teachers and Students_                15.00\n\n\n  NEW JERSEY, $57.27.\n\n    East Orange. Grove St. Cong. Ch.                          21.27\n    Englewood. Chas. Taylor                                   11.00\n    Montclair. First Cong. Ch.                                25.00\n\n\n  PENNSYLVANIA, $68.\n\n    Clark. Mrs. Elizabeth Dickson and Miss Eliza\n      Dickson, $25; Mrs. H. B. Harrington $5                  30.00\n    Lynn. S. W. Smith                                          2.00\n    Norristown. M. W. Cooke                                   10.00\n    Philadelphia. M. E. M.                                     1.00\n    Sharpsburgh. Joseph Turner                                 5.00\n    West Alexander. Robert Davidson                           20.00\n\n\n  OHIO, $1,236.56.\n\n    Berlin Heights. N. S. Wright                               3.00\n    Cincinnati. Sab. Sch. of Storrs Cong. Ch. to\n      const. JOHN ELLIOTT RICE, L. M.                         30.00\n    Cleveland. Plymouth Cong. Ch.                             57.33\n    Collamer. Union Sab. Sch.                                  5.00\n    Geneva. W. M. A.                                           1.00\n    Hudson. S. Straight, _for rebuilding Straight\n      U._                                                   1000.00\n    Hudson. Cong. Ch.                                         13.00\n    Hiram. M. S.                                               1.00\n    Lindenville. John Thompson                                10.00\n    Medina. Woman\u2019s Miss. Soc., by Mary J. Munger,\n      Treas.                                                   7.00\n    Painsville. First Cong. Ch.                               37.03\n    Saybrook. Sabbath Sch. District No. 3, for\n      _Student Aid, Tougaloo U._                               5.00\n    Senecaville. Rev. E. T.                                    1.00\n    Steubenville. Women\u2019s Miss. Soc. of First\n      Cong. Ch., by Martha J. Leslie, Treas.                  10.00\n    Tallmadge. Cong. Sab. Sch. $20.00; \u201cA Friend,\u201d\n      $6                                                      26.00\n    Twinsburgh. L. W. and R. F. Green                          5.00\n    Yellow Springs. Mrs. Mary A. Cone                         10.00\n    West Andover. Cong. Ch.                                   15.20\n\n\n  INDIANA, $7.34.\n\n    Dublin. H. M.                                              0.50\n    Evansville. Rev. J. Q. A.                                  0.50\n    Solsberry. Cong. Ch.                                       6.34\n\n\n  ILLINOIS, $472.54.\n\n    Buda. Cong. Ch.                                           17.25\n    Chicago. Lincoln Park Cong. Ch., $31.79; Mrs.\n      E. Rathburn, $10.50; First Cong. Ch. (ad\u2019l)\n      $5; Three Ladies at Annual Meeting, $3;\n      Woman\u2019s Miss. Soc. of N. E. Ch. $2.25                   52.54\n    Collinsville. Mrs. J. S. Peers and J. F.\n      Wadsworth and Wife                                      20.00\n    Elgin. Mrs. Gail Borden, $10; \u201cLittle\n      Freddie,\u201d 2c.                                           10.02\n    Englewood. Cong. Ch.                                       6.12\n    Fitchville. First Cong. Ch., $14; Second Cong.\n      Ch., $5                                                 19.00\n    Freedom. Mrs. John Hubbard                                10.00\n    Genesco. Lucy B. Perry                                     5.00\n    Granville. Cong. Ch.                                      45.00\n    Jefferson. Cong. Ch.                                      20.00\n    Kewanee. Bureau Association, by Mrs. C. C.\n      Cully, _for Missionary, Liberty Co., Ga._              100.00\n    Kewanee. Cong. Ch.                                        24.07\n    Lake Forest. Rev. W. A. Nichols                           17.85\n    Lockport. Cong. Ch., $4.04; I. P., $1                      5.04\n    Park Ridge. Geo. B. Carpenter, $5; L. P. S.,\n      $1: Others, $2                                           8.00\n    Pittsfield. Cong. Ch.                                     10.25\n    Prospect Park. Mrs. Emma L. Boyd                           5.00\n    Rockford. First Cong. Ch.                                 32.06\n    Sheffield. Cong. Ch. (of which $14 _for Lady\n      Missionary, Liberty Co., Ga._)                          35.00\n    Summer Hill. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                            4.40\n    Sterling. C. H. Rich                                       9.69\n    Wethersfield. Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Kellogg                   5.00\n    Willamette. Cong. Ch.                                      4.00\n    Woodstock. Cong. Ch.                                       2.25\n    \u2014\u2014 Freeman Miles                                           5.00\n\n\n  MICHIGAN, $283.66.\n\n    Armada. Cong. Ch., _for Missionary, Memphis,\n      Tenn._                                                   9.35\n    Bellevue. Mrs. N. E. B., $1; M. A. H., 50c.                1.50\n    Benzonia. Amasa Waters and Wife, $11; Rev. A.\n      L. Gridley and Wife, $6; S. A. Wells and\n      Wife, $2; D. B. Spencer and Wife, $2;\n      Others, $5                                              26.00\n    Cooper. Cong. Ch.                                          5.22\n    Edwardsburgh. S. C. Olmsted                               25.00\n    Galesburg. Mrs. S. M. S.                                   0.51\n    Grand Blanc. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                           16.00\n    Homestead. First Cong. Ch.                                 3.59\n    Imlay City. Woman\u2019s Miss. Soc.                             5.00\n    Imlay City. Cong. Sab. Sch.                                2.26\n    Northfield. Cong. Ch.                                      5.03\n    Olivet. Cong. Ch., $24.20; S. F. Drury, $10\n      _for Scholarship, Straight U._                          34.20\n    Richland. Mrs. R. Boyles                                   2.00\n    St. Clair. Young People\u2019s Miss. Soc., _for\n      Lady Missionary, Memphis, Tenn._                        18.00\n    Union City. \u201cA Friend\u201d                                   100.00\n    Stony Run. \u201cFriends\u201d                                       3.00\n    Portland. T. L. Maille                                    15.00\n    Vienna. Union Cong. Ch.                                   12.00\n\n\n  IOWA, $861.24.\n\n    Algona. J. B. Leake                                        3.81\n    Ames. Ladies\u2019 Cong. Ch., _for Lady Missionary,\n      New Orleans, La._                                        3.00\n    Belle Plain. Ladies of Cong. Ch., _for Lady\n      Missionary, New Orleans, La._                            4.65\n    College Springs. ESTATE of Rev. J. Lowery, by\n      Mrs. N. Lowery                                          25.00\n    Decorah. Rev. J. F. T.                                     0.90\n    Denmark. Cong. Ch. Sab. School                            17.00\n    Des Moines. Ladies of Cong. Ch., $10; \u201cPrairie\n      Chickens,\u201d $7, _for Lady Missionary, New\n      Orleans, La._                                           17.00\n    Durant. Cong. Ch.                                          5.00\n    Franklin Co. \u201cWidow\u2019s offering\u201d                            2.00\n    Green Mountain. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                        10.00\n    Green Mountain. Ladies of Cong. Ch. _for Lady\n      Missionary, New Orleans, La._                            1.35\n    Grinnell. ESTATE of Chas. F. Dike, by Mrs. C.\n      F. Dike, Executrix                                     500.00\n    Grinnell. Cong. Ch. and Soc. $74.66;\u2014\u201cA\n      Friend\u201d $20, _for Student preparing for\n      African M._;\u2014Ladies of Cong. Ch. $10, _for\n      Lady Missionary, New Orleans, La._                     104.66\n    Hampton. Cong. Ch. $9.38; Ladies\u2019 Aid Soc. $5             14.38\n    Iowa City. Cong. Ch.                                      21.00\n    Jamestown. Women of Cong. Ch. and Soc. _for\n      Lady Missionary, New Orleans, La._                       3.00\n    Mason City. Cong. Ch.                                     11.00\n    Maquoketa. Ladies of Cong. Ch. _for Lady\n      Missionary, New Orleans, La._                           10.00\n    McGregor. Woman\u2019s Miss. Soc.                              17.19\n    Montour. Ladies of Cong. Ch. _for Lady\n      Missionary, New Orleans, La._                            5.00\n    Muscatine. Cong. Sab. Sch. _for Lady\n      Missionary, New Orleans, La._                           30.00\n    New Hampton. Woman\u2019s Miss. Soc.                            1.10\n    Ogden. Ladies of Cong. Ch. _for Lady\n      Missionary, New Orleans, La._                            5.00\n    Onawa. Cong. Ch.                                           5.00\n    Osage. Woman\u2019s Miss. Soc. bal. to const. MRS.\n      ELLA STACY, L. M.                                        4.20\n    Rockford. Women of Cong. Ch. and Soc. _for\n      Lady Missionary, New Orleans, La._                       3.00\n    Toledo. Ladies of Cong. Ch., _for Lady\n      Missionary, New Orleans, La._                            1.00\n    Traer. Women of Cong. and Soc., _for Lady\n      Missionary, New Orleans, La._                           10.00\n    Waterloo. Ladies of Cong. Ch., _for Lady\n      Missionary, New Orleans, La._                           10.00\n    Wilton. L. M. Soc. $10, _for Lady Missionary,\n      New Orleans, La._;\u2014Cong. Ch., $4                        14.00\n    Stuart. Ladies of Cong. Ch., _for Lady\n      Missionary, New Orleans, La._                            2.00\n\n\n  WISCONSIN, $354.97.\n\n    Appleton. Ann S. Kimball, $50, _for a Student,\n      Fisk U._;\u2014\u201cL. T.\u201d ($5 of which for Chinese\n      M.) $10                                                 60.00\n    Beaver Dam. Mrs. Allyn Avery                               5.00\n    Beloit. Second Cong. Ch. $25; Mrs. M. A. K., $1           26.00\n    Bloomington. Cong. Ch.                                     5.47\n    Columbus. Alfred Topliff, to const. MRS. C. H.\n      CHADBOURNE, L. M.                                       30.00\n    Emerald Grove. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                         13.82\n    Fond du Lac. Cong. Ch.                                    40.00\n    Geneva Lake. G. Montague                                   5.00\n    Janesville. First Cong. Ch.                               42.93\n    Johnstown. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                              4.75\n    Madison. Cong. Ch., bal. to const. HON. S. D.\n      HASTINGS, REV. CHAS. H. RICHARDS, PROF. ED.\n      T. OWEN, HON. D. TAYLOR, F. J. LAMB and A.\n      S. FRANK, L. M\u2019s                                       110.00\n    Princeton. Cong. Ch.                                       1.00\n    Raymond. T. Sands, $5; Master Charles S.\n      Davis, $1                                                6.00\n    Wautona. Cong. Ch.                                         5.00\n\n\n  MINNESOTA, $166.62.\n\n    Austin. Mrs. L. C. Bacon                                  10.00\n    Cannon Falls. First Cong. Ch.                              6.00\n    Cottage Grove. Mrs. M. W.                                  1.00\n    Chain Lake Centre. Cong. Ch.                               1.18\n    Lake City. Cong. Ch.                                       7.02\n    Minneapolis. Plymouth Ch.                                 11.70\n    Northfield. First Cong. Ch.                               78.33\n    Northfield. First Cong. Sab. Sch., $25, _for\n      Teacher, Athens, Ala._;\u2014Bethel Sab. Sch.\n      $2.09; A. N. N., $1                                     28.09\n    Princeton. Cong. Ch.                                       2.25\n    Sherburn. Cong. Ch.                                        1.30\n    Waseca. First Cong. Ch.                                   15.75\n    Waterford. Union Ch.                                       4.00\n\n\n  KANSAS, $12.25.\n\n    Bellevue. Harriet M. Dunlap                                2.00\n    Council Grove. First Cong. Ch.                             5.00\n    Osborne. Cong. Ch.                                         5.25\n\n\n  NEBRASKA, $19.56.\n\n    Ashland. Cong. Ch.                                         4.00\n    Camp Creek. Cong. Ch.                                      3.56\n    Mainland. Cong. Ch.                                        1.00\n    Silver. Melinda Bowen                                      5.00\n    Waho. Cong. Ch.                                            1.00\n    Wayland. Miss S. P. Locke                                  5.00\n\n\n  DAKOTA, $5.50.\n\n    Yankton. Mrs. T. N. B.                                     0.50\n    Centreville. Rev. L. Bridgman                              5.00\n\n\n  COLORADO, $10.\n\n    Colorado Springs. Mrs. S. B. Pickett                      10.00\n\n\n  CALIFORNIA, $3.\n\n    National City. T. Parsons, $2; J. T., $1                   3.00\n\n\n  OREGON, $5.\n\n    Canyon City. \u2014\u2014                                            5.00\n\n\n  DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, $100.\n\n    Washington. Ludlow Patton, _for Theo. Dept.\n      Howard U._                                             100.00\n\n\n  MARYLAND, $153.51.\n\n    Baltimore. First Cong. Ch. $143.51; W. K.\n      Carson, $10.                                           153.51\n\n\n  TENNESSEE, $236.\n\n    Chattanooga. Rent                                        236.00\n\n\n  MISSOURI, $5.89.\n\n    Webster\u2019s Grove. Cong. Ch.                                 2.65\n    Cahoka. Cong. Ch.                                          3.24\n\n\n  TEXAS, $3.50.\n\n    Marshall. By Henry C. Gray                                 3.50\n\n\n  \u2014\u2014 , $1\n\n    \u2014\u2014 \u2014\u2014. Mrs. A. M. C.                                       1.00\n\n\n  ENGLAND, $76.96.\n\n    London. Freedmen\u2019s Missions Aid Soc. _for\n      Student Aid, Fisk U._, \u00a316                              76.96\n                                                         \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n    Total                                                $12,687.64\n\n\n  FOR TILLOTSON COLLEGIATE AND NORMAL INSTITUTE, AUSTIN, TEXAS.\n\n    Greenland, N. H. Cong. Ch. and Soc.                      $17.00\n    New Britain, Conn. Mrs. Norman Hart, $25; Mrs.\n      Ellen H. Wells, $25                                     50.00\n    Malone, N. Y. Mrs. S. C. Wead                            100.00\n    Baltimore, Md. T. D. Anderson                             10.00\n    Galesburg, Ill. \u201cTwo Friends\u201d                             15.00\n                                                           \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n    Total                                                   $192.00\n\n\n  FOR MISSIONS IN AFRICA.\n\n    London, Eng. Freedmen\u2019s Missions Aid Soc. \u00a3304        $1,462.24\n    London, Eng. Dr. O. H. White, \u00a310                         48.10\n                                                         \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n    Total                                                 $1,510.34\n\n\n  FOR SCHOOL BUILDING, ATHENS, ALA.\n\n    Lake Forest, Ill. E. S. W.                                 1.00\n    Northfield, Mich. First Cong. Sab. Sch.                   25.00\n    Rosendale, Wis. MRS. H. N. CLARKE, to const.\n      herself L. M.                                           30.00\n                                                            \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n    Total                                                    $56.00\n\n                                               H. W. HUBBARD,\n                                                    _Treasurer_.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nConstitution of the American Missionary Association.\n\nINCORPORATED JANUARY 30, 1849.\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nART. I. This Society shall be called \u201cTHE AMERICAN MISSIONARY\nASSOCIATION.\u201d\n\nART. II. The object of this Association shall be to conduct\nChristian missionary and educational operations, and to diffuse a\nknowledge of the Holy Scriptures in our own and other countries\nwhich are destitute of them, or which present open and urgent\nfields of effort.\n\nART. III. Any person of evangelical sentiments,[A] who professes\nfaith in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is not a slaveholder, or in\nthe practice of other immoralities, and who contributes to the\nfunds, may become a member of the Society; and by the payment\nof thirty dollars, a life member; provided that children and\nothers who have not professed their faith may be constituted life\nmembers without the privilege of voting.\n\nART. IV. This Society shall meet annually, in the month of\nSeptember, October or November, for the election of officers and\nthe transaction of other business, at such time and place as\nshall be designated by the Executive Committee.\n\nART. V. The annual meeting shall be constituted of the regular\nofficers and members of the Society at the time of such meeting,\nand of delegates from churches, local missionary societies,\nand other co-operating bodies, each body being entitled to one\nrepresentative.\n\nART. VI. The officers of the Society shall be a President,\nVice-Presidents, a Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretaries,\nTreasurer, two Auditors, and an Executive Committee of not less\nthan twelve, of which the Corresponding Secretaries shall be\nadvisory, and the Treasurer ex-officio, members.\n\nART. VII. To the Executive Committee shall belong the collecting\nand disbursing of funds; the appointing, counselling, sustaining\nand dismissing (for just and sufficient reasons) missionaries and\nagents; the selection of missionary fields; and, in general, the\ntransaction of all such business as usually appertains to the\nexecutive committees of missionary and other benevolent societies;\nthe Committee to exercise no ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the\nmissionaries; and its doings to be subject always to the revision\nof the annual meeting, which shall, by a reference mutually\nchosen, always entertain the complaints of any aggrieved agent or\nmissionary; and the decision of such reference shall be final.\n\nThe Executive Committee shall have authority to fill all\nvacancies occurring among the officers between the regular annual\nmeetings; to apply, if they see fit, to any State Legislature\nfor acts of incorporation; to fix the compensation, where any\nis given, of all officers, agents, missionaries, or others in\nthe employment of the Society; to make provision, if any, for\ndisabled missionaries, and for the widows and children of such as\nare deceased; and to call, in all parts of the country, at their\ndiscretion, special and general conventions of the friends of\nmissions, with a view to the diffusion of the missionary spirit,\nand the general and vigorous promotion of the missionary work.\n\nFive members of the Committee shall constitute a quorum for\ntransacting business.\n\nART. VIII. This society, in collecting funds, in appointing\nofficers, agents and missionaries, and in selecting fields\nof labor, and conducting the missionary work, will endeavor\nparticularly to discountenance slavery, by refusing to receive\nthe known fruits of unrequited labor, or to welcome to its\nemployment those who hold their fellow-beings as slaves.\n\nART. IX. Missionary bodies, churches or individuals agreeing\nto the principles of this Society, and wishing to appoint and\nsustain missionaries of their own, shall be entitled to do so\nthrough the agency of the Executive Committee, on terms mutually\nagreed upon.\n\nART. X. No amendment shall be made in this Constitution without\nthe concurrence of two-thirds of the members present at a regular\nannual meeting; nor unless the proposed amendment has been\nsubmitted to a previous meeting, or to the Executive Committee\nin season to be published by them (as it shall be their duty to\ndo, if so submitted) in the regular official notifications of the\nmeeting.\n\nFOOTNOTE:\n\n[A] By evangelical sentiments, we understand, among others, a\nbelief in the guilty and lost condition of all men without a\nSaviour; the Supreme Deity, Incarnation and Atoning Sacrifice\nof Jesus Christ, the only Saviour of the world; the necessity\nof regeneration by the Holy Spirit, repentance, faith and holy\nobedience in order to salvation; the immortality of the soul; and\nthe retributions of the judgment in the eternal punishment of the\nwicked, and salvation of the righteous.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nThe American Missionary Association.\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nAIM AND WORK.\n\nTo preach the Gospel to the poor. It originated in a sympathy\nwith the almost friendless slaves. Since Emancipation it has\ndevoted its main efforts to preparing the FREEDMEN for their\nduties as citizens and Christians in America and as missionaries\nin Africa. As closely related to this, it seeks to benefit the\ncaste-persecuted CHINESE in America, and to co-operate with\nthe Government in its humane and Christian policy towards the\nINDIANS. It has also a mission in AFRICA.\n\n\nSTATISTICS.\n\nCHURCHES: _In the South_\u2014In Va., 1; N. C., 5; S. C., 2; Ga., 13;\nKy., 7; Tenn., 4; Ala., 14, La., 12; Miss., 1; Kansas, 2; Texas,\n6. _Africa_, 2. _Among the Indians_, 1. Total 70.\n\nINSTITUTIONS FOUNDED, FOSTERED OR SUSTAINED IN THE\nSOUTH.\u2014_Chartered_: Hampton, Va.; Berea, Ky.; Talladega,\nAla.; Atlanta, Ga.; Nashville, Tenn.; Tougaloo, Miss.; New\nOrleans, La.; and Austin, Texas, 8. _Graded or Normal Schools_:\nat Wilmington, Raleigh, N. C.; Charleston, Greenwood, S. C.;\nSavannah, Macon, Atlanta, Ga.; Montgomery, Mobile, Athens, Selma,\nAla.; Memphis, Tenn., 12. _Other Schools_, 24. Total 44.\n\nTEACHERS, MISSIONARIES AND ASSISTANTS.\u2014Among the Freedmen,\n253; among the Chinese, 21; among the Indians, 9; in Africa,\n13. Total, 296. STUDENTS\u2014In Theology, 86; Law, 28; in College\nCourse, 63; in other studies, 7,030. Total, 7,207. Scholars\ntaught by former pupils of our schools, estimated at 150,000.\nINDIANS under the care of the Association, 13,000.\n\n\nWANTS.\n\n1. A steady INCREASE of regular income to keep pace with the\ngrowing work. This increase can only be reached by _regular_ and\n_larger_ contributions from the churches\u2014the feeble as well as\nthe strong.\n\n2. ADDITIONAL BUILDINGS for our higher educational institutions,\nto accommodate the increasing numbers of students; MEETING HOUSES\nfor the new churches we are organizing; MORE MINISTERS, cultured\nand pious, for these churches.\n\n3. HELP FOR YOUNG MEN, to be educated as ministers here and\nmissionaries to Africa\u2014a pressing want.\n\nBefore sending boxes, always correspond with the nearest A. M. A.\noffice, as below:\n\n  NEW YORK     H. W. Hubbard, Esq., 56 Reade Street.\n  BOSTON       Rev. C. L. Woodworth, Room 21 Congregational House.\n  CHICAGO      Rev. Jas. Powell, 112 West Washington Street.\n\n\nMAGAZINE.\n\nThis Magazine will be sent, gratuitously, if desired, to the\nMissionaries of the Association; to Life Members; to all\nclergymen who take up collections for the Association; to\nSuperintendents of Sabbath Schools; to College Libraries; to\nTheological Seminaries; to Societies of Inquiry on Missions; and\nto every donor who does not prefer to take it as a subscriber,\nand contributes in a year not less than five dollars.\n\nThose who wish to remember the AMERICAN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION in\ntheir last Will and Testament, are earnestly requested to use the\nfollowing\n\n\nFORM OF A BEQUEST.\n\n\u201cI BEQUEATH to my executor (or executors) the sum of \u2014\u2014 dollars\nin trust, to pay the same in \u2014\u2014 days after my decease to the\nperson who, when the same is payable, shall act as Treasurer of\nthe \u2018American Missionary Association\u2019 of New York City, to be\napplied, under the direction of the Executive Committee of the\nAssociation, to its charitable uses and purposes.\u201d\n\nThe will should be attested by three witnesses [in some States\nthree are required\u2014in other States only two], who should write\nagainst their names, their places of residence [if in cities,\ntheir street and number]. The following form of attestation will\nanswer for every State in the Union: \u201cSigned, sealed, published\nand declared by the said [A. B.] as his last Will and Testament,\nin presence of us, who, at the request of the said A. B., and in\nhis presence, and in the presence of each other, have hereunto\nsubscribed our names as witnesses.\u201d In some States it is required\nthat the Will should be made at least two months before the death\nof the testator.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\n                          THE INDEPENDENT\n\n                             For 1880.\n\n  THE INDEPENDENT appeals to cultivated men and women. It discusses\n  current questions of religion, philosophy, and politics. It\n  is wide-awake. It is not afraid. It sets people to thinking.\n  It welcomes fresh truth. It has great variety. It is so big\n  that it can always have something for the severest thinker\n  and also an abundance of the best lighter literature. It\n  publishes more religious discussion than the religious reviews,\n  poetry and stories than the popular monthlies, and gives more\n  information than an annual cyclop\u00e6dia. It has twice as large\n  a corps of the most famous writers than any other journal of\n  any sort in the country. It is indispensable to one who wants\n  to know what is going on in the religious world. It pleases\n  people. It makes people angry. It stirs them up, and always\n  interests and instructs those who do not like its position,\n  which is conservative in belief and liberal in fraternity and\n  comprehension. It grows on all who read it. TRY IT FOR NEXT YEAR.\n\n\n                   REV. JOSEPH COOK\u2019S LECTURES.\n\n  We have purchased the newspaper copyright of the Boston Monday\n  Lectures for 1879-1880, to be delivered, as heretofore, by the\n  Rev. Joseph Cook, beginning about Nov. 1st, and the same will\n  be given _verbatim_ to the readers of THE INDEPENDENT weekly,\n  together with the Preludes, after revision by the author.\n\n  These Lectures have been exceedingly popular in the past, and\n  will continue to be an attractive feature of the paper the coming\n  season.\n\n\n                   SERMONS BY EMINENT CLERGYMEN\n\n  in all parts of the country will continue to be printed.\n\n\n                             PREMIUMS.\n\n  \u261eWe have decided to withdraw on the 31st day of December, 1879,\n  all of the premiums now offered by us to subscribers, a full list\n  of which appears below; so that those who would avail themselves\n  of our liberal offers must do so before December 31, 1879.\n\n\n        Worcester\u2019s Unabridged Pictorial Quarto Dictionary.\n\n  Bound in Sheep. 1,854 pages. Over 1,000 Illustrations. Issue of\n                               1879.\n\n  Our contract with the publishers of the Dictionary expires\n  Dec. 31st, 1879, and Messrs. J. B. Lippincott & Co. absolutely\n  refuse to continue the contract beyond that date on the same\n  favorable terms. We are, therefore, compelled to withdraw the\n  Dictionary premium at the expiration of the present year; but\n  we purposely give ample notice, so that our subscribers and the\n  public in general may avail themselves of the surprisingly low\n  terms to get the Dictionary, in connection with THE INDEPENDENT.\n  We will send this _Dictionary_ to any person who will send us\n  the names of _Three New Subscribers and Nine Dollars_; or who\n  will, on renewing his own subscription, in advance, send us\n  _Two New Names_ additional and $9.00; or who will renew his own\n  subscription for three years, in advance, and send us $9.00; or,\n  for a new subscriber for three years and $9.00.\n\n  The regular price of the _Dictionary_ alone at all the\n  book-stores is $10.00, while the lowest price of three\n  subscriptions is $9.00. Both the _Dictionary and the three\n  subscriptions_, under this extraordinary offer, can, therefore,\n  be had _together_ for only $9.00. The _Dictionary_ will be\n  delivered at our office, or in Philadelphia, free, or be sent by\n  express or otherwise from Philadelphia, as may be ordered, at the\n  expense of the subscriber. The subscriber under this offer will\n  not be entitled to any other Premiums.\n\n\n                   THE REV. JOSEPH COOK\u2019S BOOKS.\n\n  We offer Rev. Joseph Cook\u2019s valuable new volumes, entitled\n  \u201cBIOLOGY,\u201d \u201cTRANSCENDENTALISM,\u201d \u201cORTHODOXY,\u201d \u201cCONSCIENCE,\u201d\n  \u201cHEREDITY,\u201d and \u201cMARRIAGE,\u201d embodying, in a revised and corrected\n  form, the author\u2019s previous remarkable Monday Lectures. They\n  are published in handsome book form, by James B. Osgood & Co.,\n  of Boston. We will mail a copy of either volume, post-paid, to\n  any subscriber to the INDEPENDENT who remits us =$3.00= for a\n  year in advance; or any subscriber may remit =$5.50= and we\n  will send him the INDEPENDENT for two years in advance, and two\n  volumes, post-paid; or, any three volumes, post-paid, to any one\n  subscriber who remits =$3.00= for three years in advance.\n\n_Subscription Price $3.00 per annum in advance, including any one\nof the following Premiums:_\n\n  Any one volume of the HOUSEHOLD EDITION or CHARLES DICKENS\u2019\n  WORKS, bound in cloth, with 16 illustrations each, by Sol.\n  Eytinge.\n\n  MOODY AND SANKEY\u2019S GOSPEL HYMNS AND SACRED SONGS, No. 2.\n\n  LINCOLN AND HIS CABINET; or, First Reading of the Emancipation\n  Proclamation. Fine Large Steel Engraving. By Ritchie. Size 26\u00d736.\n\n  AUTHORS OF THE UNITED STATES. Fine large Steel Engraving. 44\n  Portraits. By Ritchie. Size 24\u00d738-1/2.\n\n  CHARLES SUMNER. Fine Steel Engraving. By Ritchie. GRANT OR\n  WILSON. Fine Steel Engraving. By Ritchie.\n\n  EDWIN M. STANTON. Fine Steel Engraving. By Ritchie.\n\n  THE INNER LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By Frank B. Carpenter. Bound\n  in cloth. 360 pages. It gives a better insight into his \u201cinner\n  life\u201d than can be found elsewhere, and is altogether one of the\n  most fascinating, instructive and useful books of the kind ever\n  published.\n\n_We offer one premium only for one year\u2019s subscription._\n\n          Subscription Price $3.00 per Annum, in Advance.\n\n  SPECIMEN COPIES} Address THE INDEPENDENT,\n  SENT FREE.     }\n\n  P. O. BOX 2,787.  \u261eCut out this Advertisement.  =NEW YORK CITY=.\n\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n                      THE CONGREGATIONALIST,\n\n                    A Family Religious Journal.\n\nThe _Congregationalist_, as a family religious paper, aims to\noccupy the first rank. It has four editors in the office at\nBoston, besides Rev. A. H. Clapp, D. D., at Bible House, New\nYork, as editor in that city, and who furnishes a weekly letter\nfrom the Metropolis. It has also a large corps of contributors,\namong whom are some of the best newspaper writers in the country,\nsuch as Prof. Austin Phelps, D. D., Dr. Leonard Bacon, Rose Terry\nCooke, Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D., Lucy Larcom, President S.\nC. Bartlett, Mrs. Margaret E. Sangster and many others.\n\nIt gives large space to its Literary Reviews, presents more full\nand complete news from the Congregational ministers and churches\nof the country than any other journal, has a carefully prepared\ncolumn of Missionary news, has a full Children\u2019s department,\ngives large attention to Sabbath Schools and the explanation of\nthe lesson, has a \u201cFarm, Garden and Household department\u201d under\ncharge of a special editor, prints a \u201cDiary of Events for the\nWeek,\u201d and furnishes a great variety of matter, being carefully\nand closely edited in every column and line.\n\n\u201c=SOMETHING NEW.=\u201d Every one sending three dollars for a new\nsubscriber will not only be entitled to the paper for a year, but\nalso to an illustrated volume of over 300 pages, just issued,\nwhich is made up of the choicest articles and sketches in the\n_Congregationalist_ for several years past.\n\n_Send for Specimen numbers._\n\n                                  W. L. GREENE & CO.,\n\n                                  _=1 Somerset St., Boston.=_\n\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n                 New Singing Book for the Million!\n\n                         CORONATION SONGS\n\n                _=For Praise and Prayer Meetings=_,\n\n                    HOME AND SOCIAL SINGING. BY\n\n                     Rev. Dr. CHARLES F. DEEMS\n\n                                AND\n\n                       THEODORE E. PERKINS.\n\nContaining 151 Hymns with Tunes, which include more of the\nSTANDARD material that the world will not suffer to die, and more\nNEW material that deserves trial, than any other book extant.\n\nPostpaid, 30 cents. $25 per hundred.\n\n\n                          LYMAN ABBOTT\u2019S\n\n                  Commentary on the New Testament\n\nIllustrated and Popular, giving the latest views of the best\nBiblical Scholars on all disputed points.\n\nA concise, strong and faithful Exposition in (8) =eight volumes=,\noctavo.\n\n                 AGENTS WANTED IN EVERY LOCALITY.\n\n                  A. S. BARNES & CO., Publishers,\n                       New York and Chicago.\n\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n                           GET THE BEST.\n\n                           The \u201cOXFORD\u201d\n\n                          [Illustration]\n\n                         TEACHERS\u2019 BIBLES\n\n                     IN SEVEN DIFFERENT SIZES,\n\n                   At prices to suit everybody.\n\n          Apply to your Bookseller for Lists, or write to\n\n                              THOS. NELSON & SONS,\n\n                              =42 Bleecker Street, New York=.\n\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n                        Meneely & Kimberly,\n\n                    BELL FOUNDERS, TROY, N. Y.\n\nManufacture a superior quality of BELLS.\n\nSpecial attention given to =CHURCH BELLS=.\n\n\u261eCatalogues sent free to parties needing bells.\n\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n                         Brown Bros. & Co.\n\n                             BANKERS,\n\n  59 & 61 Wall Street, New York,\n\n              211 Chestnut St., Philadelphia,\n\n                                       66 State Street, Boston.\n\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n=Issue Commercial Credits, make Cable transfers of Money between\nthis Country and England, and buy and sell Bills of Exchange on\nGreat Britain and Ireland.=\n\nThey also issue, against cash deposited, or satisfactory\nguarantee of repayment,\n\n                 Circular Credits for Travellers,\n\nIn DOLLARS for use in the United States and adjacent countries,\nand in POUNDS STERLING, for use in any part of the world.\n\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n                            73,620 MORE\n\n                Singer Sewing Machines Sold in \u201978\n\n                    THAN IN ANY PREVIOUS YEAR.\n\n\n           In =1870= we sold =127,833= Sewing Machines.\n            \u201c =1878=   \u201c     =356,432=    \u201c       \u201c\n\n\nOur sales have increased enormously every year through the whole\nperiod of \u201chard times.\u201d\n\n=We now Sell Three-Quarters of all the Sewing Machines sold in\nthe World.=\n\nFor the accommodation of the Public we have 1,500 subordinate\noffices in the United States and Canada, and 3,000 offices in the\nOld World and South America.\n\n\n                      PRICES GREATLY REDUCED.\n\n\n  Waste no money on \u201ccheap\u201d counterfeits. Send for our handsomely\n                      Illustrated Price List.\n\n                 THE SINGER MANUFACTURING COMPANY,\n\n                     Principal Office, 34 Union Square, New York.\n\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n                          [Illustration]\n\n                            CRAMPTON\u2019S\n\n                             PURE OLD\n\n                            PALM SOAP,\n\n                                FOR\n\n              The Laundry, the Kitchen, and\n                          For General Household Purposes,\n\n                          MANUFACTURED BY\n\n                        CRAMPTON BROTHERS,\n\n               _Cor. Monroe & Jefferson Sts., N. Y._\n\n                 Send for Circular and Price List.\n\n\nCrampton\u2019s old Palm Soap for the Laundry, the Kitchen, and for\ngeneral Household purposes. The price of the \u201cPalm Soap\u201d is $3.90\nper box of 100 three-quarter pound bars\u201475 pounds in box. To\nany one who will send us an order for 10 boxes with cash, $39,\nwe will send one box extra free as a premium. Or the orders may\nbe sent to us for one or more boxes at a time, with remittance,\nand when we have thus received orders for ten boxes we will send\nthe eleventh box free as proposed above. If you do not wish to\nsend the money in advance, you may deposit it with any banker\nor merchant in good credit in your town, with the understanding\nthat he is to remit to us on receipt of the soap, which is to be\nshipped to his care.\n\n                            Address,\n\n                          CRAMPTON BROTHERS,\n\n                        Cor. Monroe and Jefferson Sts., New York.\n\n                             FOR SALE\n\n                              BY ALL\n\n                            MERCHANTS.\n\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n                                THE\n\n                    N. Y. Witness Publications\n\n                             FOR 1880.\n\n\n                        THE DAILY WITNESS.\n\nA religious, temperance, daily newspaper, and the only one in the\nUnion, was commenced on July 1, 1871, and continues to send forth\ndaily a rich variety of news, markets, editorials, contemporary\npress, correspondence, reports of religious and temperance\nmeetings and efforts, including a daily report of the Fulton\nStreet Prayer Meeting, with much useful and instructive matter\nfor family reading, etc., etc. The price is two cents per copy or\n$5 per annum, and to induce circulation throughout the country\nwe offer the following special terms: To clubs of five we shall\nsend the DAILY WITNESS, separately addressed, by mail, postpaid,\nfor $20 a year, or $5 per quarter. In the latter case 78 copies\ndelivered, will only cost $1. At that rate who would be without a\nNew York daily paper, equally valuable for the business man and\nhis family? We hope clubs will be formed in every city, town and\nvillage that is reached by the morning mails from New York on the\nsame day.\n\n                        THE WEEKLY WITNESS\n\nCommenced with January, 1872, and is near the completion of its\neighth year. It at present issues 54,000 weekly, which go to\nsubscribers all over the Union. Its issues from the beginning\nhave been over twenty millions of copies, each containing a\ngreat variety of very interesting matter, namely: News of the\nday, Prices Current, Financial Report, Spirit of the New York\nDaily Press, Home Department (consisting chiefly of Letters\nfrom Ladies), with a column of letters from children; General\nCorrespondence from all parts of the country, much of it valuable\nfor intending colonists; Departments for Agriculture, Temperance,\nSabbath-School, Religious Reading, including Daily Report of\nFulton Street Prayer-meeting; Serial and other Stories. It gives\nmore reading matter than any other religious weekly, and has\nprobably fully 300,000 readers, as many copies serve more than\none family. It has drawn forth unsolicited commendation from\nthousands of readers, many of whom pronounce it the best paper\nfor the family and the country they ever saw. The price is $1.50\na year; clubs of five will be supplied for $6 a year, the papers\nbeing addressed separately and postpaid.\n\n                         SABBATH READING.\n\nThis small, neat eight-page weekly paper is filled with the\nchoicest reading matter suitable for the Sabbath day, among which\nis one first-class sermon in each number. The matter in this\npaper is all different from what appears in the WEEKLY WITNESS.\nIt has no news or advertisements, editorials or communications,\nbut is just a choice selection of good, religious, temperance\nmatter, suited for all classes and all regions, and specially\nsuited for distribution as a most acceptable tract. Price one\ncent per copy, or 50 cents per annum. Ten copies (520) to one\naddress for a year, postpaid, for $4; or 100 copies for $35. This\nis found to be an excellent weekly for the more advanced classes\nin Sabbath-schools.\n\nAll the above terms are cash in advance, and the papers stop when\nsubscription expires unless previously renewed. Sample copies of\nany or all of them will be sent free if applied for by postal\ncard or otherwise.\n\nThe above publications will be sent on approbation for a month\nto any address for: DAILY WITNESS, 25 cents; WEEKLY WITNESS, 10\ncents; SABBATH READING, 5 cents, or sample copies free.\n\n                                          JOHN DOUGALL & CO.\n\n                               No. 7 Frankfort Street, New York.\n\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n                        THE WORLD FOR 1880.\n\nThe year 1880 promises to be one of the most interesting\nand important years of this crowded and eventful century.\nIt will witness a Presidential election which may result in\nre-establishing the Government of this country on the principles\nof its constitutional founders, or in permanently changing the\nrelations of the States to the Federal power. No intelligent man\ncan regard such an election with indifference. THE WORLD, as the\nonly daily English newspaper published in the city of New York\nwhich upholds the doctrines of constitutional Democracy, will\nsteadily represent the Conservative contention in this great\ncanvass. It will do this in no spirit of servile partisanship,\nbut temperately and firmly. It will be as swift to rebuke what\nit regards as infidelity to Democratic principles or to the\nhonorable laws of political conflict on the part of its friends\nas on the part of its foes. It will uphold no candidate for\noffice whom it believes to be unworthy of the support of honest\nmen, and accept no platform which it believes to misrepresent\nor to contradict the true conditions of our national prosperity\nand greatness. As a newspaper THE WORLD, being the organ of no\nman, no clique and no interest, will present the fullest and the\nfairest picture it can make of each day\u2019s passing history in the\ncity, the State, the country and the world. Its correspondents in\nthe chief centres of life and action on both sides of the ocean\nhave been selected for their character not less than for their\ncapacity. It will aim, hereafter as heretofore, at accuracy first\nof all things in all that it publishes. No man, however humble,\nshall ever be permitted truly to complain that he has been\nunjustly dealt with in the columns of THE WORLD. No interest,\nhowever powerful, shall ever be permitted truly to boast that it\ncan silence the true criticism of THE WORLD.\n\nDuring the past year THE WORLD has seen its daily circulation\ntrebled and its weekly circulation pushed beyond that of any\nother weekly newspaper in the country. This great increase has\nbeen won, as THE WORLD believes, by truthfulness, enterprise,\nceaseless activity in collecting news, and unfaltering loyalty to\nitself and to its readers in dealing with the questions of the\nday. It is our hope, and it will be our endeavor, that these may\nkeep what these have won, and that THE WORLD\u2019S record for 1880\nmay be written in the approbation and support of many thousands\nmore of new readers in all parts of this Indissoluble Union of\nIndestructible States.\n\n=Democrats= everywhere should inform themselves carefully alike\nof the action of their party throughout the country and of the\nmovements of their Republican opponents. A failure to do this\nin 1876 contributed greatly to the loss by the Democracy of the\nfruits of the victory fairly won at the polls.\n\nOur rates of subscription remain unchanged, and are as follows:\n\nDaily and Sundays, one year, $10; six months, $5.50; three\nmonths, $2.75.\n\nDaily, without Sundays, one year, $8; six months, $4.25; three\nmonths, $2.25; less than three months, $1 a month.\n\nTHE SUNDAY WORLD, one year, $2.\n\nTHE MONDAY WORLD, containing the Book Reviews and \u201cCollege\nChronicle,\u201d one year, $1.50.\n\nTHE SEMI-WEEKLY WORLD (Tuesdays and Fridays)\u2014TWO DOLLARS a year.\nTO CLUB AGENTS\u2014An extra copy for club of ten; the Daily for club\nof twenty-five.\n\nTHE WEEKLY WORLD (Wednesday)\u2014ONE DOLLAR a year. TO CLUB\nAGENTS\u2014An extra copy for club of ten, the Semi-Weekly for club\nof twenty, the Daily for club of fifty.\n\nSpecimen numbers sent free on application.\n\nTerms\u2014Cash, invariably in advance.\n\nSend post-office money order, bank draft or registered letter.\nBills at risk of the sender.\n\n\n                        =A SPECIAL OFFER.=\n\nSubscribers who send $1 for a year\u2019s subscription before\nDecember 28 will receive the WEEKLY WORLD from the date of\ntheir subscription =to March 5, 1881=. This will include the\nPresidential campaign and the inauguration of the next President.\n\nOld subscribers who send $1 before December 28, for a renewal of\ntheir subscription for 1880, will receive the WEEKLY WORLD to\nMarch 5, 1881, without missing a number.\n\n            =This Offer will be Withdrawn December 29.=\n\nTake advantage of it at once. Subscribe at once. Renew at once.\n\n\n=Note to Newspaper Publishers.=\u2014Proprietors of Democratic\nnewspapers who desire the Daily WORLD for one year may obtain it\nby publishing the foregoing prospectus six times and sending to\nTHE WORLD marked copies of their papers containing it. We offer\nlow \u201cclubbing rates\u201d to Democratic newspapers throughout the\ncountry.\n\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n                         JOHN H. HORSFALL.\n\n                            _FURNITURE_\n\n                                AND\n\n                       Upholstery Warerooms,\n\n                    Nos. 6 & 7 EAST 23D STREET,\n\n                          MADISON SQUARE.\n\n    Offers a fine selection of goods at very reasonable prices.\n\n          DESIGNS AND ESTIMATES FURNISHED ON APPLICATION.\n\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n                    Every Man His Own Printer.\n\n                  Excelsior =$3= Printing Press.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nPrints cards, labels, envelopes, &c.; larger sizes for larger work.\nFor business or pleasure, young or old. Catalogue of Presses, Type,\nCards, &c., sent for two stamps.\n\nKELSEY & CO., M\u2019frs, Meriden, Conn.\n\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n                          CHURCH CUSHIONS\n\n                            MADE OF THE\n\n                       PATENT ELASTIC FELT.\n\n             For particulars, address H. D. OSTERMOOR,\n\n  P. O. Box 4004.                             36 Broadway, New York.\n\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n[Illustration:\n\n  MARVIN\u2019S\n  FIRE & BURGLAR\n  SAFES\n  COUNTER PLATFORM WAGON & TRACK\n  SCALES\n  _MARVIN SAFE & SCALE CO.\n  265 BROADWAY. N. Y.\n  627 CHESTNUT ST., PHILA._]\n\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n                         W. & B. DOUGLAS,\n\n                        Middletown, Conn.,\n\n                         MANUFACTURERS OF\n\n                              PUMPS,\n\nHYDRAULIC RAMS, GARDEN ENGINES, PUMP CHAIN AND FIXTURES, IRON\nCURBS, YARD HYDRANTS, STREET WASHERS, ETC.\n\n[Illustration]\n\nHighest Medal awarded them by the Universal Exposition at Paris,\nFrance, in 1867; Vienna, Austria, in 1873; and Philadelphia, 1876.\n\n                         Founded in 1832.\n\n                        Branch Warehouses:\n                         85 & 87 John St.\n                             NEW YORK,\n                                AND\n                         197 Lake Street,\n                             CHICAGO.\n\n                _For Sale by all Regular Dealers._\n\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n                     THE THIRTY-FOURTH VOLUME\n\n                              OF THE\n\n                       American Missionary,\n\n                               1880.\n\n\nWe have been gratified with the constant tokens of the increasing\nappreciation of the MISSIONARY during the year now nearly past, and\npurpose to spare no effort to make its pages of still greater value\nto those interested in the work which it records.\n\nShall we not have a largely increased subscription list for 1880?\n\nA little effort on the part of our friends, when making their own\nremittances, to induce their neighbors to unite in forming Clubs,\nwill easily double our list, and thus widen the influence of our\nMagazine, and aid in the enlargement of our work.\n\nUnder the editorial supervision of Rev. GEO. M. BOYNTON, aided\nby the steady contributions of our intelligent missionaries\nand teachers in all parts of the field, and with occasional\ncommunications from careful observers and thinkers elsewhere,\nthe AMERICAN MISSIONARY furnishes a vivid and reliable picture\nof the work going forward among the Indians, the Chinamen on the\nPacific Coast, and the Freedmen as citizens in the South and as\nmissionaries in Africa.\n\nIt will be the vehicle of important views on all matters affecting\nthe races among which it labors, and will give a monthly summary of\ncurrent events relating to their welfare and progress.\n\nPatriots and Christians interested in the education and\nChristianizing of these despised races are asked to read it, and\nassist in its circulation. Begin with the next number and the new\nyear. The price is only Fifty Cents per annum.\n\nThe Magazine will be sent gratuitously, if preferred, to the\npersons indicated on page 412.\n\nDonations and subscriptions should be sent to\n\n                     H. W. HUBBARD, Treasurer,\n                                      56 Reade Street, New York.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n                          TO ADVERTISERS.\n\nSpecial attention is invited to the advertising department of the\nAMERICAN MISSIONARY. Among its regular readers are thousands of\nMinisters of the Gospel, Presidents, Professors and Teachers in\nColleges, Theological Seminaries and Schools; it is, therefore,\na specially valuable medium for advertising Books, Periodicals,\nNewspapers, Maps, Charts, Institutions of Learning, Church\nFurniture, Bells, Household Goods, &c.\n\nAdvertisers are requested to note the moderate price charged for\nspace in its columns, considering the extent and character of its\ncirculation.\n\nAdvertisements must be received by the TENTH of the month, in order\nto secure insertion in the following number. All communications in\nrelation to advertising should be addressed to\n\n                    J. H. DENISON, Adv\u2019g Agent,\n                                     56 Reade Street, New York.\n\n\u261e Our friends who are interested in the Advertising Department of\nthe \u201cAmerican Missionary\u201d can aid us in this respect by mentioning,\nwhen ordering goods, that they saw them advertised in our Magazine.\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n  DAVID K. GILDERSLEEVE, Printer, 101 Chambers Street, New York.\n\n                 *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Notes:\n\n\nAll instances of \u201cD.D.\u201d changed to \u201cD. D.\u201d to be consistent with\nthe majority of the text.\n\n\u201creponse\u201d changed to \u201cresponse\u201d on page 355. (the following\nresponse was adopted)\n\n\u201cmaintainance\u201d changed to \u201cmaintenance\u201d on page 360. (provision\nfor the maintenance of professorships)\n\n\u201conmoving\u201d changed to \u201con moving\u201d on page 380. (signifies a great\nprovidential on moving the conversion)\n\n\u201cusuages\u201d changed \u201cusages\u201d (among the early usages of New England)\n\n\u201csancity\u201d changed to \u201csanctity\u201d on page 383. (Respect the\nsanctity of his family.)\n\nRepeated \u201ct\u201d in broken word \u201cimport-tant\u201d removed when the\nword was rejoined on page 396. (In seven of our most important\ntreaties)\n\n\u201cwhatsover\u201d changed to \u201cwhatsoever\u201d on page 407. (to bear\nwhatsoever ills)\n\n\u201cit\u201d changed to \u201cat\u201d on page 412. (the Will should be made at\nleast two months before)\n\n\u201cSteal\u201d changed to \u201cSteel\u201d on page 413. (Fine Large Steel\nEngraving.)\n\nBoth \u201cpost-paid\u201d and \u201cpostpaid\u201d appear in the advertisements.\nThe differences were left, assuming the differences reflect the\nwishes of the advertisement authors.","title":"The American Missionary \u2014 Volume 33, No. 12, December 1879","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":43347}